Archives: Press Release

Judicial review of Drax Power Station CCGT Development Consent Order (DCO)

30 January 2020

Press releases
Artist's impression of Drax Power Station CCGT

“Drax’s ambition is to become carbon negative by 2030 using ground-breaking bioenergy with carbon capture and storage technology (BECCS) to remove millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year, making a significant contribution to the UK’s climate targets. Drax’s carbon negative ambition could be achieved with new, high efficiency gas power capacity as part of our portfolio of flexible generating assets.  

“Drax Power Station plays a vital role both as a major employer in the north and in producing the reliable, flexible renewable power millions of homes and businesses rely on.

“We are exploring a range of options using different, flexible technologies, including this high efficiency gas project. It could support the continued decarbonisation of the energy system, helping the UK on its path to net zero by 2050, in line with the government’s policies.” 

Drax’s Cruachan pumped storage hydro power station wins six year contract to keep electricity system stable

29 January 2020

Press releases
Engineers look out from beside a turbine within Cruachan Power Station in Scotland

  • National Grid has awarded ‘synchronous compensation’ contract to Drax’s Cruachan pumped storage hydro power station

  • The contract is to provide system services to keep the national grid stable

The contract means Drax will provide services such as inertia, which keeps the system stable, and reactive power which helps move power around the grid, for the next six years.

Andy Koss, CEO Generation, Drax, at Cruachan Power Station

Andy Koss, CEO Generation, Drax, at Cruachan Power Station. Click to view/download in high res.

System services such as inertia and reactive power were readily available in the past due to the number of large ‘spinning’ power stations on the electricity system, but the rise of non-synchronous generators such as solar, wind and interconnectors mean these services are now more important and have to be procured separately.

Andy Koss, CEO Drax Generation, said:

“Provision of these crucial services is central to Drax’s purpose of enabling a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Our strategic aim is to be a leading provider of system services which support the deployment of more renewable power – it could also help to bring us a step closer to our ambition to become a carbon negative company by 2030.” 

This is the first tender National Grid ESO has run under phase one of its System Stability Pathfinder. Under the terms of the provisional contract, one of the four turbines at the 440MW Cruachan pumped storage hydro power station in Argyll and Bute, will no longer generate power. Instead the turbine will only be used to provide the services needed to support the system.

National Grid currently plans further stability tenders to take place, both nationally and regionally, which provide an opportunity to secure further contracts for some of Drax’s other power generation assets.

Notes to editors

  • National Grid ESO’s System Stability Pathfinder tender is separate to the Capacity Market Auctions starting tomorrow and units are able to take part in both processes provided they are available to provide the contracted services.
  • Inertia is a system support service which acts like a shock absorber helping to control changes in frequency, to ensure the grid maintains a frequency of 50Hz. Without having enough inertia available to reduce the rate of frequency changes which occur on the system, the grid is more vulnerable to power cuts.
  • National Grid made an announcement about its new approach to stability services today.

ENDS

Media contacts

Ali Lewis
Drax Group Head of Media & PR
E: [email protected]
T: 07712670888

Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07849 090368

Photo caption: Engineers look out from beside a turbine within Cruachan Power Station in Scotland (view/download)

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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.

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.  It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers: 

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

  • Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
  • Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.

Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Drax responds to Chatham House report

Press releases
Biomass domes

“Both the UK Committee on Climate Change and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change agree that BECCS, a ground-breaking negative emissions technology which Drax is pioneering, will play a critical role in addressing the climate emergency. It is the only negative emissions technology which can produce renewable electricity whilst removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. 

“By applying BECCS to Drax’s biomass generating units, we could deliver 16 million tonnes of negative emissions a year – a significant proportion of what’s required in the UK to address the climate crisis. This could be done sustainably using low-grade wood from the working forests we already source from, which have a large surplus of this material.” 

Drax’s new biomass policy paves the way for world-leading sustainability standard

24 January 2020

Press releases
Working Forests in the US South

An Independent Advisory Board (IAB), led by former UK government chief scientific adviser Sir John Beddington, was appointed by Drax in October when it published a strengthened sourcing policy to ensure the biomass it uses to produce 12% of Britain’s renewable electricity meets the highest sustainability standards.

In its first report the IAB has found that Drax’s sustainable biomass sourcing reflects the recommendations made by Forest Research – the research agency of the Forestry Commission, which is widely considered to be the industry gold standard.

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner said:

“The work of the IAB is vital in guiding and challenging us to be as sustainable and transparent as we can be. I am reassured to know that our existing policies reflect the Forestry Commission’s recommendations and we’ll continue to work with the Board to strive for greater excellence across our operations.

“We recently announced our ambition to become the world’s first carbon negative company by using sustainable biomass with carbon capture and storage technology. To achieve this, we need to go further in our efforts to lead the world on biomass sustainability standards, positively contributing to our climate, the environment and the communities in which we operate.”

The IAB also recommended consideration is given to a review of existing evidence on sustainable biomass to advance understanding among academics, policy makers and environmental groups.

Such a “restatement of evidence” would be aimed at fostering agreement amongst scientists and environmental groups on the role of sustainable biomass, sharing information with third parties on Drax’s operations and using scientific evidence to identify points of agreement, disagreement and areas which need further study.

The IAB’s chair John Beddington said:

“It’s a complex area to navigate and if some common ground based on the scientific evidence can be agreed, it creates a framework to help ensure the right types of biomass are used which make the greatest contribution towards addressing the climate emergency.”

The UK’s Committee on Climate Change has said that biomass will play a critical role in achieving the UK’s 2050 net zero target.

The IAB, which meets twice a year, will produce a written report of its conclusions and recommendations for Drax after its meetings and a summary of these will be published on the Drax website. The IAB held its first meeting on November 15, 2019.

ENDS

Media contacts

Ali Lewis
Drax Group Head of Media & PR
[email protected]
07712 670 888

Editor’s Notes

Forest Research (2018) Biomass Carbon Impacts, report for the European Climate Foundation has been cited by a number of organisations including the UK Committee on Climate Change in its Biomass in a Low Carbon Economy report.

Drax set up the IAB in 2019 alongside its new strengthened biomass sustainability policy, which goes beyond existing regulations, to ensure the company’s biomass sourcing continues to improve with the latest science and best practice.

The “restatement of the evidence” the IAB has suggested is an independently run process based on input from scientists with varying points of view, consultation with industry, non-governmental organisations and policy makers.

Sir John Beddington also said in his letter to Drax that the board wanted to explore how science regarding the use of early thinnings and small roundwood can further develop. Drax has initiated a programme of independent analysis on the environmental and economic impacts in the areas where it sources its wood. It will be sharing this with the IAB for its scrutiny and insight.

The IAB acts as a forum for engagement between sustainable biomass experts and Drax and is tasked to advise and give feedback on feedstock options, sourcing decisions, procurement practices, forest science and forest carbon science.

The IAB also advises on the role of biomass in Drax’s climate change mitigation activities and in supporting the transition to a net zero energy system, as well as providing insight on society’s expectations for responsible and sustainable biomass.

  • Members of Drax’s Independent Advisory Board are:
    • Professor Sir John Beddington (Chair) – former UK Government Chief Scientific Adviser
    • Professor Lord John Krebs (Vice Chair) – Emeritus Professor of Zoology, University of Oxford and crossbench member of the House of Lords
    • Virginia Dale – Adjunct Professor, University of Tennessee
    • Professor Sam Fankhauser – Director of the LSE Grantham Institute
    • Elena Schmidt – Standards Director, Roundtable on Sustainable Biomass
    • Forest Research (Ex-Officio) – A representative from Forest Research, the UK’s primary organisation for forest science will also join the Board in an ex-officio capacity
  • The Board provides independent advice to Drax on:
    • The role of biomass in Drax’s climate change mitigation activities and in supporting the transition to a net zero energy system
    • Feedstock options, sourcing decisions, forest science, forest carbon science and how Drax can optimise carbon impacts
    • Procurement practices
    • Societal expectations for responsible and sustainable biomass
    • And gives feedback and recommendations on Drax’s sustainable biomass approach and performance
  • More information on the Board can be found here
  • Drax’s biomass sourcing policy has four key commitments:
    • To reduce CO2 emissions
    • To protect the natural environment
    • To support people and communities
    • To carry out research, outreach and intervention
  • More information on Drax’s biomass sourcing policy can be found here
  • In December, Drax published the first in a series of independent reports on the environmental and economic impacts in the areas where it sources its wood.
  • Hood Consulting’s report highlighted the positive role the Amite Bioenergy pellet plant has had in the region supporting the health of western Mississippi’s forests and its economy.

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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.

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.  It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers:  

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

  • Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
  • Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.

Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Waltham Leas Primary Academy visits Europe’s biggest carbon saving project

Press releases
Students from Waltham Leas outside the cooling towers at Drax Power Station

The group of 32 students aged between eight and nine, visited Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, which has upgraded two thirds of its generating capacity to use compressed wood pellets in place of coal.

This has transformed the plant to become the UK’s largest renewable power generator – producing enough electricity for four million homes – and Europe’s biggest decarbonisation project.

It has also paved the way for Drax to pioneer ground-breaking bio energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology. If BECCS can be used across all four of its biomass generating units, Drax could become the world’s first negative emissions power station, helping it to make an even greater contribution towards tackling the climate emergency.

Pupils were taken on a full tour of the site including the innovative BECCS pilot plant which is capturing a tonne of CO2 each day, the 427-metre turbine hall that houses the six huge turbines which power the generators to produce electricity.

They also enjoyed a close-up view of the UK’s first wood pellet storage domes, each large enough to fit The Royal Albert Hall inside, and the 12 cooling towers, which at 115 metres high are taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Drax Group’s Head of Business Sustainability, Vicky Bullivant, said:

“By providing tours at Drax Power Station we want to further students’ understanding of how electricity is produced and hopefully fire their imaginations and inspire them to study STEM subjects by showing them some of the pioneering technologies we’re trying, like BECCS, which could play a vital role in addressing the climate crisis.”

During the tour, pupils learnt how renewable electricity is generated and discovered how sustainable, compressed wood pellets have enabled Drax to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 80% compared to when those generating units used coal.

Chetna Taylor, from Waltham Leas Primary Academy, who organised the visit, said:

“The students had a great day at Drax, learning about how the electricity system works and where our electricity is generated. Visits like this are so valuable because seeing the power station and the scale of the operations is impossible to replicate in a classroom – it really brings the subject to life.”

Drax has a long tradition of supporting education and helping to inspire the engineers of the future by encouraging greater interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. Earlier this year it invested £35,000 in the GreenPower initiative involving seven local schools and colleges in building and racing electric vehicles.

The Waltham Leas Academy students are among over 12,000 visitors to Drax every year. Tours are free to all primary and secondary schools and can be tailored to suit the area of the curriculum teachers are interested in.

For further information on school tours at Drax visit the website at www.drax.com.

ENDS

Image caption: Students from Waltham Leas outside the cooling towers at Drax Power Station

Media contacts:

Lily Pettifar
Drax Group Media Intern
[email protected]   
07719 559 556

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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.

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.  It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers:  

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

  • Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
  • Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.

Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

 

Drax pledge to lead the energy industry on social mobility

22 January 2020

Press releases
Justine Greening at Selby College in electric car

The former Secretary of State for Education visited Drax Power Station – the UK’s largest renewable electricity generator, in North Yorkshire, to hear more about the energy company’s work to improve education and skills within the communities local to its UK operations.

The Social Mobility Pledge is a cross party campaign aimed at encouraging businesses to develop relationships with colleges and schools, to increase access through apprenticeships, work experience and other career enhancing schemes which help to level the playing field and ensure opportunities are created for all.

Close up of Justine Greening in the electric vehicle.

Close up of Justine Greening in the electric vehicle.

Justine Greening, Social Mobility Pledge founder, said:

“By removing barriers to STEM learning and opening up employment opportunities within the energy industry, Drax is giving young people the skills needed to forge successful careers in a sector which has an important role to play in the transition to a net zero economy.”

During her time in North Yorkshire, Justine Greening visited Selby College – one of Drax’s educational partners – and Drax Power Station, where she met post-graduate students from Staffordshire University who were visiting to see how it has become Europe’s largest decarbonisation project by converting two thirds of its generating units to use biomass instead of coal.

Drax recently announced plans to become a carbon negative company by using innovative bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology. Negative emissions technologies like BECCS are critical to the UK to achieve its net zero carbon targets whilst also creating new jobs and opportunities for clean growth.

Andy Koss, Drax CEO Generation, said:

“Companies like Drax are developing and innovating using new technologies which will help to combat the climate crisis. It’s important that communities are not left behind during the transition to a more sustainable future – making sure people have the right skills is a key part of that.

“At Drax we work with schools and colleges to provide exciting activities and experiences which help to boost education, inspiring students by giving them access to new technologies from within the energy sector, like electric vehicles, which provides invaluable experience.”

In 2019, Drax worked with schools and colleges in the Selby area, to encourage more people to study Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects by providing them each with an EV kit car for students to build and race.

Liz Ridley, Deputy Principal, Selby College said:

“Our students have got involved in some incredible projects with Drax, such as building and then racing their own electric vehicle.

“Having the chance to work with such experienced and skilled engineers from Drax on an exciting project like that, was inspiring – it opened the students’ eyes to new possibilities and gave them some of the skills they’ll need in the future to grasp the opportunities which come their way. We’re looking forward to repeating the project again with more of our students this year.”

Justine Greening discussing STEM learning with Drax Generation CEO, Andy Koss; Head of Sustainable Business, Vicky Bullivant; and staff and students of Selby College.

Drax has a significant network of partnerships with schools and colleges across its operations which encourages access to STEM learning. It also provides work experience opportunities, apprenticeships and graduate recruitment schemes.

Through its commitment to the Social Mobility Pledge, Drax will publish a report later this year about its performance in delivering a positive social impact, which will be used as an example of best practice in the energy industry.

ENDS

Top image: Justine Greening sitting in an electric vehicle next to Liz Ridley, built by Selby College students through a partnership with Drax.

Media contacts

Ali Lewis
Drax Group Head of Media & PR
[email protected]
07712 670 888

Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
[email protected]
07849090368 

Editor’s Notes

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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.

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.  It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers:  

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

  • Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
  • Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.

Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

How Highland snow helps power Scotland

14 January 2020

Press releases
The Highlands around Ben Cruachan are rich with wildlife. Educational information on area’s flora and fauna can be explored at the Cruachan Power Station visitor centre.

Towering over Loch Awe, Ben Cruachan is one of many Munros that spend much of the winter blanketed in snow. Cruachan is unlike any other Scottish mountain, however. On its slopes lies a dam which stores water in a reservoir that is then transported into a power station built inside the hollowed-out centre of the mountain to generate power by spinning turbines.

“On a few occasions the snowfall has been so extreme that we’ve been unable to access the dam for a few weeks at a time,” says Gordon Pirie, a Civil Engineer at Cruachan. “Thankfully, we have enough controls in place where we are still able to monitor and operate things remotely.”

When there is excess power on grid, the turbines reverse and use it to pump water from Loch Awe up to the reservoir. In this way it is storing the excess electricity, in the form of water – like a battery – and holding it in the top reservoir, ready to be used by the power station when demand for power increases.

Built on the shores of Loch Awe in Argyll and Bute in the mid-1960s, Cruachan was the first reversible pumped storage hydro system on its scale to be built in the world and is still one of only four power stations in the whole of the UK that can operate in this way, making it a vital component of Britain’s generation network.

The power station is very responsive, and able to react quickly to changes on the system – it can achieve full load (440MW) in just 30 seconds and can operate continuously at full output for around 15 hours if necessary.

Thanks to Scotland’s wet weather, 70 million cubic metres of water flowed into Cruachan’s reservoir from surface water from the mountainside, melting snow and rainfall in 2018. That’s enough to fill 28,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

This water is collected and delivered through a complex series of aqueducts which stretch for some 14km and brings water from 75 intakes across the mountain. The intakes range from pipes no larger than small street drains to some large enough for a jeep to drive through.

Keeping these aqueducts in working order so melt water from snow can continue to flow into the reservoir is one of Pirie’s main tasks.

“Even in freezing conditions the water will still flow through the aqueduct system, the intakes have a built-in feature which allows the water to flow into them even if the surface is frozen solid,” he explains. “Any snow or frost on the ground eventually thaws and makes its way to the reservoir.”

Cruachan shows that with a bit of ingenuity and determination, Scotland’s dreich weather needn’t be a negative. The rain and snow which fall across the Highlands helps produce renewable electricity that powers our homes and moves us closer to a net-zero future.

The Hollow Mountain shows that every cloud really does have a silver lining.

Image captions (click to view/download)

Top image: A Highland cow with Ben Cruachan in the background.

  1. Cruachan dam and reservoir blanketed with snow. (Copyright Alamy all usage must be sought by them).
  2. Cruachan’s network of aqueducts stretch for around 14km.
  3. Civil engineer Gordon Pirie on Cruachan dam.
  4. Snow can block the access road to the dam, leading engineers to have to walk up the mountain.

ENDS

Media contacts:

Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
[email protected]
07849090368 

Ali Lewis
Drax Group Head of Media & PR
[email protected]
07712 670 888

Editor’s Notes

  • You can read about the men who built Cruachan and the complex construction of the power station on the Drax website.
  • Drax acquired Cruachan power station at the end of 2018, when it bought a portfolio of flexible, renewable and low-carbon power stations located across Scotland and England.
  • Since then, the visitor centre has been renovated and Drax has also introduced free school tours during term time as part of the company’s efforts to boost STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) skills.
  • 50,000 people visit Cruachan Power Station each year and take guided tours inside the subterranean world of the power station, where they can see the machine hall and learn about its history and the feat of engineering required to build it.
  • Cruachan is one of four pumped hydro storage stations in the UK and has a capacity of 440 MW – enough to power more than 880,000 homes during peak demand.
  • The turbine hall is located 1 km within the hollowed-out mountain of Ben Cruachan and houses four generators, supplying a range of vital balancing and ancillary services to the grid, such as frequency control, spinning and operating reserves, helping to maintain secure power supplies.
  • Drax’s Scottish operations include hydro facilities in Galloway and Lanark and a biomass-from-waste plant at Daldowie, near Glasgow, along with Cruachan, all of which were acquired at the end of last year.

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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.

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.  It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers:  

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

  • Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
  • Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.


Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Trafford College visits Europe’s biggest carbon saving project

10 January 2020

Press releases
Trafford College visit to Drax

The group of 23 students aged between 18 and 25, visited Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, which has upgraded two thirds of its generating capacity to use compressed wood pellets in place of coal.

This has transformed the plant to become the UK’s largest renewable power generator – producing enough electricity for four million homes – and Europe’s biggest decarbonisation project.

It has also paved the way for Drax to pioneer ground-breaking bio energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) technology. If BECCS can be used across all four of its biomass generating units, Drax could become the world’s first negative emissions power station, helping it to make an even greater contribution towards tackling the climate emergency.

Students were taken on a full tour of the site including the innovative BECCS pilot plant which is capturing a tonne of CO2 each day, the 427-metre turbine hall that houses the six huge turbines which power the generators to produce electricity.

They also enjoyed a close-up view of the UK’s first wood pellet storage domes, each large enough to fit The Royal Albert Hall inside, and the 12 cooling towers, which at 115 metres high are taller than the Statue of Liberty.

Drax Group’s Head of Business Sustainability, Vicky Bullivant, said:

“By providing tours at Drax Power Station we want to further students’ understanding of how electricity is produced and hopefully fire their imaginations and inspire them to study STEM subjects by showing them some of the pioneering technologies we’re trying, like BECCS, which could play a vital role in addressing the climate crisis.”

During the tour, pupils learnt how renewable electricity is generated and discovered how sustainable, compressed wood pellets have enabled Drax to reduce its carbon emissions by more than 80% compared to when those generating units used coal.

Bertin Speaks, from Trafford College, who organised the visit, said:

“The students had a great day at Drax, learning about how the electricity system works and where our electricity is generated. Visits like this are so valuable because seeing the power station and the scale of the operations is impossible to replicate in a classroom – it really brings the subject to life.”

Drax has a long tradition of supporting education and helping to inspire the engineers of the future by encouraging greater interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. Last year it invested £35,000 in the GreenPower initiative involving seven local schools and colleges in building and racing electric vehicles.

The Trafford College students are among over 12,000 visitors to Drax every year. Tours are free to all primary and secondary schools and can be tailored to suit the area of the curriculum teachers are interested in.

For further information on school tours at Drax visit the website at www.drax.com.

Image Caption: Trafford College outside the Biomass domes at Drax Power Station.

ENDS

Media contacts:

Ali Lewis
Drax Group Head of Media & PR
[email protected]
07712 670 888

Selina Williams
Drax Group Media Manager
[email protected]
07912230393

About Drax

Drax Group’s ambition is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Its 2,600-strong staff operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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.

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.  It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers:  

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

  • Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
  • Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.

Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Companies meet to discuss negative emissions ambitions

Press releases
Drax CCUS incubation area

In August 2019 Velocys’ subsidiary Altalto Immingham Limited, a collaboration with British Airways and Shell, submitted plans for Europe’s first commercial waste-to-jet-fuel plant near Immingham on the South Bank of the Humber. The company has since voiced its support for the Zero Carbon Humber campaign, which is seeking to develop a large-scale carbon dioxide transport and storage network in the Humber that would significantly reduce emissions and create new job opportunities for the region.

Dr Neville Hargreaves, VP Waste to Fuels, Velocys, said:

“Subject to planning consent and financing, our Altalto Immingham project could be producing sustainable aviation fuel as soon as 2024. Velocys has a robust technological solution for this challenging sector which addresses one of the hardest sectors to decarbonise and can help the UK meet its net zero target.”

“Furthermore, we’ll also produce a capture-ready stream of carbon dioxide, and thus a transport and storage network in the Humber would allow us to make negative emission fuels, delivering a further environmental benefit.”

Steve Drayton (Director of Innovation, Drax),  Dr Neville Hargreaves (VP Waste to Fuels, Velocys), Brian Greensmith (Drax), Richard Gwilliam (Drax), Martin Hopkins (Velocys)

Steve Drayton (Director of Innovation, Drax),  Dr Neville Hargreaves (VP Waste to Fuels, Velocys), Brian Greensmith (Drax), Richard Gwilliam (Drax), Martin Hopkins (Velocys)

Steve Drayton, Director of Innovation at Drax said:

“There are some interesting synergies between our ambitions at Drax to become the world’s first carbon negative company and Velocys’ plans to produce carbon negative fuels in the Humber.

“Having innovative businesses like Velocys in the Humber region makes a zero carbon industrial cluster here an exciting possibility, which will result in new jobs and clean growth delivering for the environment as well as the economy.”

The Zero Carbon Humber campaign aims to create the UK’s first net zero industrial cluster in the region which could make a bigger contribution to UK’s climate goals than any other industrial cluster – capturing 15% of the UK’s current annual CO2 emissions.

By using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) Drax will be able to remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than it produces, creating a negative carbon footprint for the company.

CCUS incubation area, Drax Power Station, July 2019

CCUS incubation area, Drax Power Station; click image to view/download.

ENDS

Media contacts:

Ali Lewis
Drax Group Head of Media & PR
[email protected]
07712 670 888

Selina Williams
Drax Group Media Manager
[email protected]
07912230393

Notes to editors:

Drax was the first company in the world to announce an ambition to become carbon negative by 2030 when CEO Will Gardiner spoke at COP 25 in Madrid in December.

Sustainable biomass is an important part of the UK’s long-term energy mix. Combining this renewable fuel with carbon capture and storage technology on Drax’s biomass generating units at its power station in North Yorkshire, England, means the Group’s operations could capture 16 million tonnes of CO2 a year or more – a significant proportion of the UK’s target.

Drax announced it had captured the first carbon dioxide from its pioneering BECCS pilot project earlier this year.

The UK Committee on Climate Change’s ‘Net Zero’ report states that BECCS could generate up to 173 TWh of electricity by 2050, capturing up to 51 million tonnes of CO2 – around half of the remaining carbon in the economy that the UK will need to capture to become ‘net zero’.

Drax launched the Zero Carbon Humber campaign in September with partners Equinor and National Grid Ventures, aimed at creating the world’s first zero carbon industrial cluster in the region.

About Drax

Drax Group’s purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. Its 2,900-strong employees operate across three principal areas of activity – electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of flexible, low carbon and renewable electricity generation assets across Britain. 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 two thirds of 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.

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.  It also owns and operates four gas power stations in England.

Customers:  

Drax owns two B2B energy supply businesses:

  • Haven Power, based in Ipswich, supplies electricity and energy services to large Industrial and Commercial sector businesses.
  • Opus Energy, based in Oxford, Northampton and Cardiff, provides electricity, energy services and gas to small and medium sized (SME) businesses.


Pellet production:

Drax owns and operates three pellet mills in the US South which manufacture compressed wood pellets (biomass) produced from sustainably managed working forests. These pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used by Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Velocys

Velocys is sustainable fuels technology company. Velocys designed, developed and now licences proprietary Fischer-Tropsch technology for the generation of clean, low carbon, synthetic drop-in aviation and transport fuel from municipal solid waste and waste woody biomass. Velocys is currently developing projects in Natchez, Mississippi, USA (incorporating Carbon Capture Use and Storage) and Immingham, UK to produce fuels that significantly reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and key exhaust pollutants for aviation and road transport. Originally a spin-out from Oxford University, in 2008 the company acquired a US company based on complementary technology developed at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Velocys is headquartered in Oxford in the United Kingdom.

www.velocys.com