- First round of funding from the Drax Community Fund will see donations given to 33 organisations across the UK.
- This includes donations to more than 20 organisations in the Yorkshire area, which deliver STEM education and skills development, enhance green spaces or improve communities.
Renewable energy leader, Drax Group has announced the support it will provide to community organisations local to its operations though its new Community Fund, launched in 2023.
The donations of £500 to £2,000 are for community-led projects which support STEM education and skills, enhance green spaces or improve communities local to its operations.
It has announced funding to 21 organisations in Yorkshire, where Drax owns and operates the UK’s largest power station. Drax Power Station near Selby, in North Yorkshire, generates enough reliable, renewable power for four million homes, using sustainable biomass and supports over 7,000 jobs, directly and throughout its supply chains, mainly in the North.
Bruce Heppenstall, Plant Director at Drax Power Station, said: “I’m really proud of the work Drax does to support the community local to the power station.
“The diversity of organisations that will benefit from the funding announced by our new Community Fund means we will be supporting lots more people across the county, including residents, charities and non-profits, which do really important work to enhance people’s lives here in Yorkshire.
“Through these donations we want to advance participation in STEM education and improve opportunities for people, and we aim to enhance green spaces, so residents have better access to nature.”
The projects in Yorkshire that will receive donations worth a total of £19,050, from Drax Community Fund, include:
- Women in Tech, York: Encouraging young women to go into STEM careers, holding free monthly meetings, where local women can learn about career opportunities and meet role models in the industry.
- Marshlands Primary School, in Goole: Pupils have been working with the local council to improve their local park, to install a wildflower patch and improve public facilities in the park.
- Western Wolds Men in Sheds, East Yorkshire: Construction of nesting boxes designed for barn owls and little owls to encourage nesting in the local area.
- Ryhill Junior, Infant and Nursery School, in Wakefield: Providing eight iPads to school pupils to further their education.
- Goole Community Concert Band: Helping bring the local community together by starting a local community concert band in the town for all ages.
Graham West, Treasurer of Western Wolds Men in Sheds, said: “With the Drax Community Fund grant we are funding the building of owl boxes.
“At the moment we are working on 12 boxes and building is well in progress. Bob, who is a member and looks after our owl boxes, is now starting to put them up in trees in his area.
“The grant has given members an interesting project to work on – either cutting out the parts, assembling or painting so thank you again”.
Roger White, Member of Goole & East Riding Community Concert Band, said: “This donation from Drax will help launch our new community group of a fully inclusive concert band for our local areas in and around Goole.
“The money will be used to buy musical scores, and other essential equipment for the band giving our community a place to meet, play and enjoy music, something that has been absent in the local area for a long time. Welcoming musicians of all abilities and ages, we hope to perform at bandstands and other local events for the wider community to enjoy. Thank you, Drax Community Fund.”
To find out more about the Drax Community Fund and how to apply for funding, go to the website.
Notes to editors:
Drax Foundation, launched last March and awards larger grants of up to £50,000 for established, non-project organisations.
Drax recently announced the Community Foundation has given £2.7m in charitable giving for regional programmes and grassroots projects globally, of which £1.3 million went to UK projects.
ENDS
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About Drax
Drax Group’s (Drax) purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030, using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology.
Drax’s c.3,500 employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production and supply to third parties. For more information visit www.drax.com
Power generation:
Drax owns and operates a portfolio of renewable electricity generation assets in England and Scotland. The assets include the UK’s largest power station, based at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies four percent of the country’s electricity needs.
Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK’s biggest renewable power generator. It is also where Drax is piloting the negative emissions technology BECCS within its CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage) Incubation Area.
Its pumped storage, hydro and energy from waste assets in Scotland include Cruachan Power Station – a flexible pumped storage facility within the hollowed-out mountain Ben Cruachan.
The Group also aims to build on its BECCS innovation at Drax Power Station with a target to deliver 4 million tonnes of negative CO2 emissions each year from new-build BECCS outside of the UK by 2030 and is currently developing models for North American and European markets.
Pellet production and supply:
The Group has 18 operational pellet plants and developments with nameplate production capacity of around 5 million tonnes a year.
Drax is targeting 8 million tonnes of production capacity by 2030, which will require the development of over 3 million tonnes of new biomass pellet production capacity. The pellets are produced using materials sourced from sustainably managed working forests and are supplied to third party customers in Europe and Asia for the generation of renewable power.
Drax’s pellet plants supply biomass used at its own power station in North Yorkshire, England to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses, and also to customers in Europe and Asia.
Customers:
Drax supplies renewable electricity to UK businesses, offering a range of energy-related services including energy optimisation, as well as electric vehicle strategy and management.
To find out more go to the website www.energy.drax.com
