Renewable energy giant Drax, has signed an agreement with Allied Glass to provide 66GWh 100% renewable electricity per year from one of Drax’s run of river hydro-electric schemes located in Scotland.
The corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) allows Allied Glass to use hydro-backed Renewable Energy Guarantee of Origin (REGO) certificates to support its carbon reduction goals, linked to the generation at the Galloway hydro scheme. The CPPA means that Allied Glass can state with authority where their energy is sourced from and will help the business to further reduce its carbon emissions – already down by more than 10% since 2015.
The Galloway hydro scheme generates renewable power in response to rising electricity demand, helping to provide grid stability.
Dating back to 1935, the Galloway complex was the first large scale integrated hydro-electric power scheme to be built in Britain. Located in rural south-west Scotland it comprises six power stations, 12 turbines, eight large dams, 16km of tunnels and pipelines, five fish passes, 22 bridges and four pumping stations, generating 126MWs of renewable electricity – enough to supply 70,000 homes.
Valpy Fitzgerald, Director of Renewables and Sustainable Commodities at Drax, said:
“We’re delighted to partner with Allied Glass to provide them with 100% renewable source power, as well as Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGOs) from our Galloway hydro scheme.
“Renewable energy is increasingly important to organisations as they look for ways to decarbonise – and being on supply with our 100% renewable source power is a simple first step. Our Galloway CPPA presents another opportunity for our customers to demonstrate their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials while making significant progress towards achieving net zero.”
Alan Henderson, CEO at Allied Glass, said:
“We chose to source our renewable power from Drax’s Galloway Hydro Scheme, as knowing exactly where our electricity comes from helps us continue towards our 2025 sustainability targets.
“We work closely with our suppliers to ensure that the materials and resources we use are sustainable. Renewable electricity is very much part of that process. We’re very happy that we can say our operations are powered by 100% renewable electricity. It’s important for us as a business to be able to operate with a low impact on the environment. Electricity and renewable certification from Drax helps us to demonstrate that to our customers, which is becoming more important.”
ENDS
Picture caption: One the Galloway Hydro Scheme’s eight dams, in Carsfad.
Notes to editor
A corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) is an energy contract for businesses that want to purchase renewable electricity directly from a specific producer and location.
While power purchase agreements (PPA) are made between a power generator and third party, such as an energy supplier, CPPAs allow organisations to contract directly with a power generator to provide long-term support of a specific source of renewable electricity.
The contract with Allied Glass spans 30 months and will see Drax provide 66GWh per annum of renewable electricity.
Media contacts
Ben Wicks
Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07762 525 661
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 4Mt 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 17 operational pellet plants and developments with nameplate capacity of 4.6Mt, which will increase to c.5Mt once developments are complete.
Drax is targeting 8Mt of production capacity by 2030, which will require the development of over 3Mt 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 mills supply around 30% of the biomass used at its own power station in North Yorkshire, England to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK’s homes and businesses.
Customers:
Drax is the largest supplier of renewable electricity to UK businesses, supplying 100% renewable electricity as standard to more than 370,000 sites through Drax and Opus Energy.
It offers 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
