Tag: BECCS

Wind droughts show the need for low-carbon flexible generation

5 February 2025

Opinion

By Dr Iain Staffell, Imperial College London 

As our energy mix changes and a different weather challenge has been taking up the headlines, latest analysis from Electric Insights has revealed that the need for reliable low-carbon generation when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine is becoming more important. Dr Iain Staffell took a look at the data.   

“Dunkelflaute” must surely be an early contender for the 2025 Oxford Dictionary word of the year.  A German word meaning “dark doldrums”, it is used in the energy world to describe a dark, cold, calm spell of weather during which very little energy can be generated with wind or solar power.

In December and January, Britain has faced two spells of so-called Dunkelflaute.  The first, hitting around the 12 December, saw wind – the largest source of energy in the UK last year overall – drop to 6% of total supply.  In response, gas power stations ramped up to their highest output ever recorded, supplying more than 73% of Britain’s electricity and sending power prices soaring.  Wind output dropped suddenly again in the New Year causing prices to hit £2,900/MWh (40 times their average) on 8 January.

This winter has again demonstrated some of the challenges we must address in reaching a clean power system by 2030.  The combination of a long cold snap and low wind speeds left Britain’s power system relying heavily on natural gas and imports, drawing down the nation’s gas storage to ‘concerningly low’ levels, and coming close to generation falling short of peak demand.  Options for low-carbon flexibility are urgently needed – both investing in new technologies and maintaining existing sources – as electricity supply and demand become more dependent on the weather.

Daily average electricity mix in Britain during mid-December, highlighting the Dunkelflaute period, and the difference between output from dispatchable technologies which we control, and those that are driven by the weather or foreign power markets.

Gas was not the only technology to help during the shortfall.  Biomass and hydro plants increased their output by 40% and 60% on the peak day (12 December) compared to the weekends before and after.  While this helped meet the shortfall of wind, the impact was muted as Britain has relatively little capacity of either technology.  In previous years, coal power stations would have also helped to meet demand, but the last one closed in September.  Pumped hydro and batteries helped meet the evening peak on the 12th, but these only supply power for a few hours, and so cannot help with multi-day shortages.

Interconnection with neighbouring countries also provides flexibility, but on the 12th when we most needed them, imports from abroad fell by half relative to the surrounding days.  Britain’s neighbours were suffering from the same wind drought, as weather systems are often the size of continents.  More power could have flowed into Britain, but only if our prices rose high enough.  This exposes a key problem with relying on interconnection to solve capacity shortages, which leaves countries competing for limited supply of power at the same time.

Altogether, this leaves gas as the only large-scale source of flexibility in the country.  This is a risky proposition on three fronts: affordability, energy security, and our climate goals.

The cost of our gas dependence: We are still reeling from the gas price crisis.  Gas is very much the ‘crutch’ of the grid, and British electricity is more strongly swayed by gas prices than in any other European country, as we have so few alternatives for flexible generation (no coal, limited hydro and biomass, and less storage than neighbouring countries).  Gas sets the electricity price in 98% of hours, despite meeting only a third of electricity demand. That means Britain’s electricity prices track almost perfectly with gas prices, leaving consumers particularly vulnerable to price shocks, as seen during the recent gas price crisis.

The change in electricity and natural gas prices on Britain’s wholesale markets over the last decade, indexed to the 2010–19 average.  Gas prices increased by over 50% between February and December last year, dragging electricity prices up with them.

Energy security at risk: Relying so heavily on a single technology in times of system stress is leaving all our eggs in one basket.  Capacity was tight on 12 December and 8 January, causing NESO to issue rare Capacity Market Notices, a ‘blackout prevention system’ used to encourage generators to prepare extra capacity just in case.   Britain’s last coal plant has retired, all bar one nuclear plant is coming towards their end of life, and it is unclear if biomass will continue operating beyond 2027.  This all comes just as peak electricity demand is expected to grow from electric vehicles, heat pumps, AI, and data centres.  Unless more capacity is built or existing capacity has its lifetime extended, Capacity Market Notices will be increasingly likely in future.

The carbon challenge: Gas is the most polluting fuel remaining on the grid.  In just five years, government aim to run a clean power system, meaning just 5% of electricity produced from fossil fuels, down from over 25% today.  These plans include retaining almost all the current gas capacity to cover rare but intense periods of low renewable output.  Put together, this means gas plants will see fewer operating hours in the future, just as coal plants did over the last decade.  Either they will need to charge more for their output to cover costs, or the system needs to move more towards paying for availability than for output (e.g. capacity payments).

Phasing out gas will largely be achieved by scaling up wind and solar power, but that further intensifies the challenges posed by weather variability.  Both the CCC and NESO recognise that a balanced approach is needed, using all the tools at our disposal – flexible low-carbon generation, long-duration energy storage, interconnectors and a continued (but increasingly limited) role for gas.  Looking ahead, policy frameworks envisage the arrival of more low-carbon dispatchable power from 2030 onward.  This includes power stations equipped with carbon capture and storage (CCS), hydrogen, and long-duration storage.  All of these play little or no role in today’s power system, so the task now is to define a clear strategy for scaling and deploying these resources at pace, while avoiding cost escalation to consumers due to all the new investments.  By planning for Britain’s future energy needs and taking strategic action now, government, industry and investors can break free from paying for volatile gas expensive imports, and seize the opportunity of clean, stable, and lower cost electricity.

Read the full article here or in the Q4 2024 Electric Insights report, coming soon.

This article was written by Dr Iain Staffell, Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, as part of the Electric Insights project. Drax does not guarantee the accuracy, reliability or completeness of this content.

Newsweek Pillars of the Green Transition interview with Drax CEO, Will Gardiner

18 November 2024

Opinion

This interview appeared first in Newsweek Investment Reports.

Given the recent energy challenges in Europe, especially since the war in Ukraine, how do you view Drax’s transition from fossil fuels to biomass? Do you believe this model is scalable and reliable enough to meet Europe’s long-term energy demands amidst geopolitical instability?

The war in Ukraine has demonstrated how critical biomass can be as an alternative energy source and its role in the energy transition. While solar and wind are often seen as the core renewable energy technologies, they aren’t always reliable, especially when there’s no wind or sun. Biomass serves as an essential solution that offers the same stability and reliability as coal but without the associated CO2 emissions. It provides critical ancillary services to the grid, like inertia and reactive power, similar to large-scale thermal plants, making it a valuable asset in ensuring energy supply.

However, it’s important to recognize that biomass should not be the primary energy source. Its usage must be sustainable, meaning there have to be clear rules on sourcing feedstock. At Drax, our transition from coal to biomass has been guided by strict sustainability requirements, ensuring that the biomass we use is renewable and responsibly sourced.

Can you briefly explain what biomass is and how it fits into Drax’s operations?

Biomass involves using sustainable wood pellets instead of fossil fuels to generate power. Drax, originally the largest coal-fired power station in Western Europe, underwent a significant transformation over the past two decades to switch from coal to biomass. Today, instead of burning coal, we use around 7 to 8 million tons of wood pellets annually, primarily sourced from the southeastern U.S. and western Canada.

The transition involved building a new supply chain tailored to biomass, which includes customized storage, logistics, and transport processes. Once the biomass reaches our power station, it’s used in the boilers to generate electricity in a way that’s similar to coal-fired generation, but with a much lower carbon footprint.

Drax has set a goal to be carbon negative by 2030. How do you plan to achieve this, and what role will carbon capture and storage play in the process?

Biomass is already a low-carbon power generation method, but by incorporating carbon capture and storage (CCS), we can take it a step further. Our plan is to install carbon capture units at our UK power station starting in 2027, with the goal of being fully operational by 2030. This technology will capture the CO2 emissions that come out of the power station and store them under the North Sea, effectively making our operations carbon negative.

Once fully operational, this process will remove 4 million tons of CO2 annually from the atmosphere. To put this into perspective, capturing 8 million tons of CO2 is equivalent to installing heat pumps in every home in Birmingham, the UK’s second-largest city.

How do you ensure that the biomass you source is sustainable and doesn’t contribute to deforestation?

The sustainability of biomass hinges on it being a renewable resource. This means that the CO2 absorbed by trees as they grow is released when we burn the pellets but is reabsorbed by new trees, maintaining a balanced cycle within the biosphere. Unlike fossil fuels, which release CO2 that’s been locked in rocks for millions of years, biomass doesn’t add new carbon to the atmosphere.

To ensure sustainability, all our biomass is sourced from forests that are actively regenerating, with no contribution to deforestation. In fact, the forests we source from are required to have increasing or stable carbon stocks. In the southeastern U.S., where most of our pellets come from, carbon stocks have been steadily growing since the 1950s. Additionally, strict limits are in place for CO2 emissions throughout the supply chain, from pellet production to transport, ensuring that biomass remains a low-carbon process.

Our sourcing practices are also rigorously documented and regulated, ensuring compliance with UK government standards. Importantly, the majority of our feedstock comes from byproducts such as sawdust and shavings from sawmills, contributing to a more well-managed forest ecosystem.

How do you integrate biomass with other renewable energy sources to create a reliable energy mix?

The UK’s energy system relies on a mix of different fuels, including wind, solar, gas, biomass, and hydro. Each source plays a different role in ensuring energy stability. For instance, on a sunny day with light wind, around a quarter of the UK’s power might come from solar, 13% from wind, 25% from gas, and 8% from biomass.

Biomass is unique because it’s a renewable, dispatchable energy source, meaning it can be turned up or down based on demand. This flexibility is crucial for maintaining a balanced energy system, especially when wind and solar aren’t generating power.

Drax’s strategy focuses on providing dispatchable renewable power to support the grid when other sources aren’t available, ensuring a reliable and stable energy supply.

As biomass continues to expand, particularly in North America, how do you plan to scale up operations, and what challenges do you anticipate for the industry?

The history of biomass power generation, especially over the last 25 years, has largely been about replacing coal, which is one of the most carbon-intensive fuel sources. As wind and solar become more affordable and widespread, the role of biomass will evolve. The next generation of biomass power stations will likely integrate carbon capture and storage, enabling biomass to act as a source of carbon removal.

For Drax, our plan is to build biomass power stations in the U.S. with integrated carbon capture and storage technology, which offers two key benefits: 24/7 green power and significant carbon removal. This combination is crucial for achieving net zero and meeting the growing demand for sustainable power, especially as technologies like AI drive increased energy consumption.

Why do you think biomass, despite being a significant part of the energy mix, isn’t as well-known as wind or solar energy?

Biomass tends to be more geographically specific. It’s an important part of the energy transition in countries like the UK, Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands, where sustainable forestry is prevalent. In regions with fewer forests, like Southern Europe, it’s less common. Moreover, in places with consistent sunshine, like the Middle East, solar energy paired with batteries is often more viable. The visibility and relevance of biomass vary based on regional resources and energy needs.

How significant will carbon capture be in reducing emissions, and when do you think it will become a scalable solution?

Carbon capture is poised to play a crucial role in reducing emissions. The technology is proven and has been used by oil and gas companies for many years. The shift toward making carbon capture a viable business solution has gained momentum, particularly after COP26, with major players in the energy sector investing in this technology.

There are also growing incentives in countries like the U.S., Sweden, and Denmark, making carbon capture economically viable. By 2030, we expect to see the first significant projects, including ours in the UK and the U.S., with broader adoption occurring by the mid-2030s.

How do you educate the public about carbon capture and ensure they understand its importance in achieving net zero?

The need to achieve net zero is now widely accepted by the public and business leaders alike, especially as climate events like hurricanes, floods, and droughts continue to highlight the urgency of the situation. However, it’s crucial to convey that simply reducing emissions won’t be enough—we must also remove CO2 from the atmosphere to reach net zero.

We spend considerable time working with governments to ensure they understand this narrative, as government support is vital for driving the adoption of carbon capture technology. Once governments are on board, it becomes easier to communicate this message to the public, making carbon capture a more integral part of the green energy transition.

The UK must not squander its energy legacy

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

24 October 2024

Opinion
Biomass storage domes and water cooling towers at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire

This article appeared in the Yorkshire Post on  24 October 2024

Many of the original climate change heroes live and work here in Yorkshire and it is these men and women who have worked so hard to keep the lights on whilst also ensuring that Britain became the first major economy to halve its emissions.

However, whilst this may sound like an encouraging accolade, the new Government has inherited a challenging situation where Britain is now lagging behind on delivering its targets for generating renewable energy and stopping climate change.

The UK’s carbon budgets are a legacy that the Conservative Party should be proud of and the legally binding targets that the last Government committed to form the basis of a set of world leading pathways that, if delivered, will make a meaningful contribution to slowing decarbonisation and ultimately improve everyone’s quality of life.

Critically, they also underpin long-term energy forecasts which demonstrate that global electricity usage is expected to more than double by 2050.

Both Government and industry will have to work closely together to ensure that billions of pounds of investment is made into the UK in order to enable the delivery of the renewable energy infrastructure required to power this increase in demand.

This is most true here in Yorkshire and the Humber, where due to the legacy of our fossil fuel industries, we have the biggest decarbonisation opportunity of any region.

The decisions businesses are making drive economic growth, support thousands of high-quality jobs and signal that the nation is also open to foreign investment.

In Government, the Conservative Party understood the value of this long-term perspective but in opposition they currently seem more focused on short term political calculations that put them in danger of spoiling their legacy.

Last week the former Energy Secretary, Claire Coutinho, set alight the Conservative Party’s proud record of introducing carbon budgets and rowed back on her work to put the policies in place to meet them when she was Secretary of State.

She singled out Yorkshire’s Drax Power Station as being surplus to the country’s requirements, despite it powering 4 million homes and providing 4% of the country’s total power and 8% of its renewable electricity. Crucially, she neglected to say what could replace this significant amount of renewable and reliable generation capacity.

Everyone who works at Drax Power Station is proud of our 50-year history, the role we play today in delivering dispatchable, renewable power to the country when it needs it, not just when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining, and the ongoing contribution it can make to tackling climate change.

The transformation of the site from the country’s largest coal-fired power station into the single biggest source of renewable power, saw its carbon emissions slashed by 99% and in turn made a significant contribution to the UK meeting its current climate targets.

And now we want to go even further, by installing the game changing carbon removals technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at the site.

BECCS at Drax will make it significantly easier for the country to meet its short and long-term climate targets, deliver the new Government’s 2030 clean electricity grid and, critically, our binding carbon budgets.

As the National Energy System Operator and Government work at pace to set out and implement their plans for the sector, we are ready to engage positively to play our part in a solution that delivers the essential objectives of security of supply, grid stability and decarbonisation.

The UK needs a consistent and assured energy strategy that keeps the lights on, delivers the decarbonisation agenda that society needs and wants, and stimulates economic growth and prosperity.

A statement from Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

18 October 2024

Opinion

“The Conservative Party’s decision is reckless and irresponsible. It is deeply disappointing that they now care more about political point scoring than the country’s ongoing energy security and ability to meet net zero.

“In Government, the party acknowledged the key role Drax Power Station, the country’s largest source of renewable power, plays in keeping the lights on for millions of homes and businesses when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

“As Secretary of State for DESNZ, Claire Coutinho’s name is on the planning approval for Drax’s plans for BECCS at the Selby site. The decision letter clearly stated that the project will support the transition to net zero by 2050.

“Her comments will upset Drax Power Station colleagues who work tirelessly to power the UK. It will also lead to concerns across our country-wide supply chain and among other UK based biomass generators.

“Our priority is working in partnership with the Government who is focused on safeguarding the UK’s energy security and delivering net zero.”

 

BECCS at Drax can accelerate the UK’s decarbonisation by delivering carbon removals

21 June 2024

Opinion

By Richard Gwilliam, UK BECCS Programme Director

Decarbonising our economy is critical to fighting climate change and meeting net zero by 2050.

In the UK, we have made strong progress in creating a greener electricity grid. We have gone further and faster than any other G7 country to transition to lower carbon power generation. That is a record we can be extremely proud of.

At Drax, we have played a key role in this journey by converting Drax Power Station from being the largest coal-fired electricity generator in the UK to the country’s biggest single source of renewable power.

By using sustainable biomass to generate electricity the carbon emissions of the North Yorkshire site have dropped by 99%. Drax Power Station is now in its 50th year of operation and contributes to UK energy security.

Our four generating units can provide up to 2.6GW of dispatchable, secure, renewable power to the country’s grid, at the times the country needs it most, such as when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

But we are not stopping here.

We plan to help accelerate the decarbonisation of the UK’s electricity system by adding the carbon removals technology, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), to Drax Power Station. BECCS is the only technology which can generate renewable power while removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The International Energy Agency, the UK’s Committee on Climate Change and National Grid ESO all say that BECCS will have to play an important role in delivering net zero and ensuring the UK can reach its legally binding fifth and sixth carbon budgets. ​

Adding BECCS to the power station would also ensure that we can support the major political parties’ plans for grid decarbonisation and for delivering largescale engineered carbon removals.

The two BECCS units we want to deliver could remove 8 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year. In carbon terms that is equivalent to taking 3 million cars off the UK’s roads or stopping all departing flights from Heathrow.

Analysis from economic consultancy Baringa has shown that with BECCS at Drax Power Station it will cost £15bn less to reach net zero by 2050 compared to other more complex measures to meet the target.

However, to deliver the project we will need to secure the right support from the next Government, including a bridging mechanism from the end of current renewable schemes in 2027 to BECCS operations starting in 2030.

With this in place we could invest billions in delivering BECCS, creating up to 10,000 jobs during construction. We also intend to source 80% of the materials for the project from British suppliers helping support economic growth across Yorkshire and the Humber and nationally.

Delivering BECCS at Drax Power Station will be a further milestone in the UK’s decarbonisation providing long-term energy security, carbon removals and economic development in the heart of Yorkshire and the Humber.

Learn more about BECCS at Drax here.

For 50 years Drax Power Station has been generating power and high quality jobs

13 June 2024

Opinion

By Bruce Heppenstall, Plant Director, Drax Power Station

Drax Power Station has kept Britain’s lights on for 50 years. As well as playing a key role in the country’s energy security, providing enough power for 4 million homes, we have been a long-term source of high-quality well-paid jobs, too.

The site I manage in Selby is one of the largest employers locally and combined with our regional supply chains we contribute £358m per year to the economy of Yorkshire and the Humber. There won’t be a single constituency within the region where we don’t have some form of economic impact.

As the Plant Director, I am proud of this role that we play in supporting regional prosperity. We employ around 1,000 people directly at Drax Power Station and through maintenance, logistics and other activities hundreds of contractor colleagues can also be on site during any one week – increasing over a thousand during a planned outage.

However, our impact doesn’t end at the borders of Yorkshire and the Humber either. We are one of the largest users of rail freight in the UK and our biomass wagons take pellets from the Ports of Tyne, Liverpool, Hull and Immingham. This element of our supply chain also supports 2,500 jobs across the country.

Analysis from Oxford Economics shows that in 2021 the economic activity created by Drax Power Station contributed £735m to the UK economy and supported 7,130 jobs.

For some time, we have also been investing heavily in the workforce of the future. Since 2003, we have trained over 150 apprentices at the power station. We work in partnership with Selby College and the University of Sheffield to give the next generation the skills they need for long-term, rewarding careers in renewable power and delivering net zero.

We know it is important to get young people engaged in green skills early and that is why, through the Drax Foundation, we work closely with local authorities, schools and social enterprises to support STEM education and training on energy efficiency. We’re also behind an initiative to install LED lightbulbs and solar panels in schools to manage their energy costs and get young people interested in our industry.

The future of Drax Power Station will involve us continuing to generate renewable power from biomass but also adding carbon capture and storage and creating the world’s largest BECCS facility. We are planning to invest billions in this critically important carbon removal technology and up to 10,000 jobs could be created and supported during construction.

BECCS is vital because it provides reliable, renewable power to support energy security, while removing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and making a significant contribution towards addressing the climate crisis – no other technology does both.

Drax Power Station has played an important role both regionally and nationally through our contribution to energy security, jobs and economic growth for the last 50 years. And with the successful delivery of our BECCS project, I very much hope that we will continue to do so for the next 50.

But to get there we need to secure the right policy support for BECCS from the next government. That includes rapidly launching the Track-1 expansion and Track-2 project selection processes for CCS and making urgent progress on the development of a business model for greenhouse gas removal technology. With these in place we can get BECCS operational by 2030, removing millions tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere per year while ensuring that local people can build their careers in skilled jobs at the heart of the green transition, for decades to come in Selby.

Learn more about Drax’s plans for BECCS here.

Drax’s plans can help the next Government deliver UK energy security

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group

7 June 2024

Opinion

The UK has decarbonised its energy system at a quicker rate than any other country, but having done ‘the easy bit’ and with demand for electricity forecast to increase by 50% by 2035, we are now at an inflection point.

Additionally, leading thinktank Public First’s research shows that in 2028 the UK is on course to hit an energy security “crunch point” – with peak demand predicted to exceed secure dispatchable and baseload capacity by 7.5GW.

This is due to delays in bringing new generation on to the system, anticipated increased demand for power, and aging assets, including coal, nuclear and gas, coming off the electricity grid.

That means to deliver energy security, meet rising demand for power and to reach binding net zero targets, including the 5th and 6th carbon budgets, the next government needs to go further and faster.

This year marks half a century that Drax has been powering the UK and contributing to security of supply. Today, the flexible, dispatchable power that our assets in North Yorkshire and Scotland produce keep the lights on when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine.

Drax Power Station, the UK’s largest single-source of renewable electricity, powers 4 million homes. In Scotland, Cruachan Power Station and our other hydro power sites provide the grid flexibility, reduce the need for curtailment payments to wind farms and help meet the demand for energy.

In total our business delivers about 4% of the UK’s electricity and 8% of its renewable power.

Subject to getting the right policy support, we stand ready to invest billions to deliver carbon removals and renewable power using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) at Drax and more than double the pumped hydro storage capacity at Cruachan.

Completing these projects will mean we can play a vital long-term role in providing secure power to the country and supporting the next government in meeting the goal of a decarbonised grid by 2030 or 2035. Without Drax’s assets delivering these targets will be extremely challenging.

Our plans for BECCS and the expansion at Cruachan will also reduce the country’s exposure to commercially volatile and imported fossil fuels, enhance our national security and create and support thousands of jobs during construction.

But to realise this potential, the next government must prioritise and speed up implementing the support required to unlock the investment for these major infrastructure projects.

To deliver the first pumped storage hydro power stations in the UK for decades, including the Cruachan expansion, we need to see a cap and floor mechanism implemented. This would provide an investment framework to reduce risks for investors while at the same time encouraging operators of the new storage facilities to respond to system needs.

And all large-scale biomass generators planning to transition to BECCS need the certainty of a bridging mechanism to maintain their flexible, dispatchable renewable power between the end of the current renewable support and BECCS operations starting.

The carbon removals BECCS can deliver are recognised by the world’s leading climate scientists, including the UN’s IPCC and the UK’s CCC, as crucial to almost all pathways to reach net zero and fighting climate change. The carbon credits produced through BECCS can be purchased by companies with emissions that are hard or impossible to abate providing a pathway for them to permanently remove carbon from the atmosphere.

Energy security, jobs and skills and net zero should go hand in hand and we want to work with the next Government to swiftly implement these policies. Doing so will give new ministers the best chance possible to maintain progress on decarbonising the UK’s energy system while ensuring there is sufficient, secure capacity to meet the country’s energy needs without relying on foreign fossil fuels.

Learn more about how Drax supports the UK energy system here.

[Carbon Capture Magazine article] Spiking Energy Demand

7 May 2024

Opinion

This story first appeared in Carbon Capture Magazine.

By Raj Swaminathan, Senior Vice President at Drax.

While there’s little debate that the greenhouse gas emissions that sit at the heart of our planet’s unprecedented warming come from fossil fuel consumption and other human activities, clawing back these carbon outputs is a multi-faceted issue. In addition to efforts to transition to renewable power sources like wind, solar, and biomass, which remain essential to mitigating this crisis, leading scientists agree that reducing emissions is not sufficient; we must go further and faster with carbon removals.

It’s estimated that we’ll need to capture and store as much as 9.5 billion metric tons of CO2 every year by 2050 to reverse legacy emissions enough to achieve international climate targets, according to the IPCC. Today, carbon removal facilities only capture a fraction of the emissions generated across the planet, and we urgently need a spectrum of high-quality solutions to scale our ability to remove carbon from the atmosphere.

At the same time, spiking energy demand – driven largely by the growing needs of data centers, particularly those underpinning artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology, as well as new industrial and manufacturing facilities – also means we need to increase generation capacity rapidly to avoid an energy security crisis. This becomes more difficult to achieve through intermittent sources like wind and solar alone, which can’t be turned up and down when the grid is strained, opening an opportunity for solutions that can provide renewable, baseload power while permanently removing carbon from the atmosphere to fill this vital need.

Bioenergy with CCS – a critical technology for decarbonization

Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is a carbon removal technology that uses sustainably sourced biomass to generate renewable energy while permanently sequestering the carbon underground. Because BECCS is one of the only renewable sources that can generate baseload power around the clock, seven days a week, it can serve as the backbone of renewable power grids for when the sun isn’t shining, or the wind isn’t blowing – a role fossil fuels often fill today.

At the same time, BECCS captures post-combustion carbon at the stack and pipelines it into geologic storage, permanently securing it underground. These high-quality carbon removals are more straightforward to measure in comparison with other solutions like nature-based removals, making it much simpler to quantify the overall impact achieved.

Compared to other carbon capture technologies, BECCS also has more diversified revenue streams – including renewable power generation, government incentives for carbon storage, and the sale of carbon dioxide removals (CDR) credits to offset emissions for other companies and industries. Because of this diversification, BECCS not only provides a clearer path to profitability but also offers a high-quality CDR at a much lower price point than alternatives like direct air capture (DAC). This results in a more sustainable and scalable path to adoption.

Due to these advantages, BECCS is positioned to do much of the heavy lifting regarding carbon removals, but it doesn’t replace the need for additional carbon capture and renewable energy solutions. Technologies like DAC, while costlier to operate today, will play an important role in helping to reverse legacy emissions as well; in fact, BECCS could even power DAC facilities to ensure they’re running on renewable energy. The same is true for renewable power technologies – we need far more wind and solar capacity in addition to BECCS.

Pioneering BECCS in the US and UK

Drax believes that BECCS will be integral to decarbonizing the power sector and hard-to-abate industries. To this end, Drax has launched a new independent business unit this year that is focused on becoming the global leader in large-scale carbon removals. This business unit will oversee the development and construction of Drax’s new-build BECCS plants in the US and internationally, and it will work with a coalition of strategic partners to focus on an ambitious goal of removing at least 6 Mt of CO2 per year from the atmosphere.

Previously, Drax successfully completed two BECCS pilots at Drax Power Station, the UK’s largest power station that contributes approximately 4 percent of Britain’s generation output and 11 percent of its renewables. The Drax team is now working to outfit Drax Power Station with BECCS technology that will remove an estimated 8 Mtpa of carbon while generating 10 TWh of power. This is slated to be the first carbon-negative power station in the world and is key to achieving Drax’s goal of becoming a carbon-negative company.
Drax is also pursuing an initial target in the U.S. to have two BECCS plants built and operating by the 2030s. These will be the first large-scale, biomass-fueled power stations in North America, generating an estimated total of 4 Twh of power while sequestering approximately 6 Mt of CO2 per year.

BECCS is an essential technology to help achieve global decarbonization targets. While it doesn’t replace the need for additional carbon capture and renewable power generation alternatives, its unique advantages can help reverse carbon pollution from the past while meeting the energy demands of the future.

The EU’s embrace of carbon removals

24 April 2024

Opinion

By Kasia Wilk, Head of Public Affairs and Policy, EU & Asia

The UK may no longer be part of the European Union, but the decisions taken by its institutions still impact British businesses and consumers.

What happens in Brussels matters, even if Britain no longer has a seat at the decision table. You may not notice the link to the EU at first, but often technological changes have their roots in the decisions made by the organisation’s institutions.

Take for instance something as innocuous as your mobile phone charger. In recent years USB-C charging ports have increasingly become the standard across Apple and Android devices. This is no accident, an EU directive to mandate all devices for sale on the continent must have a universal USB-C charge port by the end of this year.

This European decision has made the world’s biggest tech companies reconfigure its global designs and supply chains.

If Brussels can influence how the world charges its mobile phones, you won’t be surprised to learn its decisions on climate change policy carry significant influence too.

Nearly all the UN IPCC’s pathways to net zero by 2050 require a significant scale-up of engineered carbon removals. Their importance has led the EU to begin significant policy development in this area.

The opening months of 2024 has seen developments in the space gather at pace. In February, the EU Commission set out its proposals to reduce emissions by 90% by 2040 compared to levels in 1990. To achieve this, the Commission expects to scale-up industrial carbon removals like BECCS and DACCS alongside land-based techniques such as afforestation to 400 million tonnes of removals annually by 2040.

Released alongside the proposed target was the Industrial Carbon Management Strategy providing a roadmap for the removal and storage of millions of tonnes of CO₂ within the Union in the next three decades. This stressed the need to develop further policy options and support mechanisms for BECCS and DACCS.

With the need for large-scale carbon removals made clear, attention is now turning to how to certify and ensure credibility of removal projects. The EU institutions recently reached an agreement on the Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CRCF) which will likely become a blueprint for global for carbon dioxide removals (CDR) frameworks. This framework will create a critical foundation for scaling the voluntary market for CDRs in the EU, including BECCS.

Carbon removal companies like Drax want transparent and robust rules in the sector. It is vital that only high-quality removals, and removals that would not otherwise have taken place, are credited. The regulator also must prevent the same activity from being certified twice or using the same certificate twice. This is what the EU’s proposals aim to do, and it could be a blueprint for the UK and governments around the world. However, there remains room for improvement as the CRCF framework only covers removals within the EU’s borders, which means the international nature of the voluntary carbon removals market has not been considered.

Demand for CDRs is continuing to grow, with several high-profile international deals already announced. One example is our own memorandum of understanding with Respira which would enable the firm to buy up to 2 million metric tonnes of CDR certificates.

While progress is being made by Brussels, more policy development is needed in financially incentivising carbon removals through enhanced business models. Developments could include integrating carbon removals into compliance markets like the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme and introducing support schemes such as a Carbon Contracts for Difference. As the sector’s costs decrease through learning and economies of scale, the support frameworks could be tapered in the long-term ensuring value for money for consumers and governments.

While it can feel daunting standing at the foot of the hill staring at the summit, we know that the climate, our communities, and businesses across the continent are worth the sharp ascent.

Around 93% of emissions take place outside of the confines of the EU, but by acting swiftly Europe can lead the world on the development of a vibrant carbon removals industry.

At Drax, our aim is to become a global leader in carbon removals. We are currently progressing plans to deliver two BECCS projects – one in the UK and one in the US – by 2030, with both projects able to permanently remove a combined volume of 7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year.

We want to eventually be able to geologically sequester 20 million tonnes of carbon each year. Successful trials at our North Yorkshire power station in the UK enabled Drax to become the first company in the world to successfully capture carbon dioxide from the combustion of a 100% biomass feedstock.

BECCS will provide durable, high-integrity carbon removal credits and gigatonne scalability, and is the only technology that generates reliable, renewable power while removing carbon from the atmosphere.

With many Member States continuing to rely on fossil fuels to power their grids, biomass and BECCS conversions could be a vital role in making the EU’s ambition climate targets a reality. It is critical that the EU institutions continues to develop policy at pace to ensure businesses can have confidence to invest in carbon removal projects and the credits which come from them.

The EU has a remarkable opportunity to lead the world on this important area of climate policy, and it is one I hope they seize.