The £35,200 of funding, donated between April and June this year, has gone to projects that provide STEM education and skills development, enhance green spaces or improve communities.
Jane Breach, Drax UK Community Manager, said:
“As part of Drax’s commitment to being a good neighbour in the communities where we operate, we are delighted to announce this quarter’s donations for 25 community-based organisations including Lindsey Lodge Hospice and Brayton Youth Connect. These groups make a tangible difference to people’s lives and help us make a positive impact on people, nature and the climate in our communities.”
In the previous quarter, Drax donated to groups including PlayStillingfleet, who look after the Stillingfleet playground, for new play equipment, and Hensall Village Hall, to help fund a new boiler. Both sites are in the vicinity of North Yorkshire’s Drax Power Station.
Ross Powell, Chair at PlayStillingfleet Community Group, said:
“The funding has allowed us to successfully deliver the final phase of our playground project. The playground has quickly become a focal point for children and parents to come together and build the next generation of friendships in the village.”
David Hardaker, Treasurer at Hensall Village Hall, said:
“The new boiler has been installed thanks to the generosity of the Drax Community Fund plus local support via a concert which raised £490.
“Without Drax’s support the outcome would have been so much different. We are now looking forward to a warm space in the winter that will ensure that all our groups continue and hopefully expand. Until Drax intervened so generously we were looking at closure, without a doubt.”
Drax’s Community Fund provides donations of £500-£2,000 for community-led projects. In addition, the Drax Foundation was launched in March this year to award larger grants of up to £50,000 for established non-profit organisations. In addition to the Drax Community Fund, we also provide larger grants of up to £50,000 through the Drax Foundation.
Organisations and initiatives that meet Drax’s funding and selection criteria are encouraged to visit www.drax.com/community to learn more about the Foundation and submit an initial expression of interest.
ENDS
Pic caption 1: Community event at Hensall Village Hall.
Pic caption 2: New play equipment at PlayStillingfleet.
Media contacts:
Andy Low
Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07841 068 415
About Drax
Drax Group’s 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 around 3,000 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 five 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 and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe. It is also where Drax is piloting the groundbreaking 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 19 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 energy.drax.com
To find out more information about the Drax Foundation go to the website www.drax.com/community
