Archives: Press Release

Drax Biomass supports Hurricane Ida relief efforts

5 October 2021

News

The funds and supplies are going to hurricane relief efforts driven by United Way of Northeast Louisiana (NELA) as part of their ‘Embrace Louisiana’ relief project.

Drax Biomass has recently been awarded ‘Pacesetter’ status by United Way NELA, which recognizes the company as a leader in the community to set the pace for other employee campaigns in the region.

This campaign encourages companies and their employees to give back by volunteering or donating to their communities. Drax Biomass showed a 17% increase in employee donations from their most recent campaign.

Executive Vice President of Drax’s Pellet Operations Matt White said:

“It’s a privilege to be able to work with United Way which has been here for the Northeast Louisiana community through countless disasters this year alone, supporting the wellbeing of so many people.

“Hurricane Ida has been devastating to many communities in the region. It’s important to support the people in the areas where we operate. That’s why we donated $5,000 to help local relief efforts. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the hurricane.”

Janet Durden, United Way of Northeast Louisiana President:

“We are so grateful for the incredible partnership between Drax and United Way of Northeast Louisiana. Regardless of the issue our community is facing Drax responds immediately and very generously. We are thankful for their generosity and commitment to service, both during times of disaster and year-round.

“The exceptional increase in employee giving at Drax certainly ‘sets the pace’ and will surely inspire other workplace partners to step up for our community through their Workplace Campaigns.”

In the past 12 months, Drax has supported families in Northeast and Central Louisiana who were impacted by Hurricane Laura and donated $20,000 to help rebuild the public pavilion in the town of Olla and to repair the roof of Urania’s recreational hall following the storm.

Photo caption: Supplies for hurricane evacuees as part of hurricane relief efforts co-ordinated by United Way of Northeast Louisiana. Credit: United Way of Northeast Louisiana

ENDS

 

Media contacts:

Annmarie Sartor
Drax Biomass Communications Officer
E: [email protected]
T: +1 318-801-0046

Selina Williams
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: +44 7912 230393

Editor’s Notes

Headquartered in Monroe, LA, with operations in the Southeastern U.S., Drax Biomass is committed to supporting the communities in which it operates by promoting sustainable forestry and investing in local economic development. It is part of British energy company Drax Group.

Drax Biomass produces sustainable compressed wood pellets, which are shipped to Drax Power Station in England and used to generate renewable electricity for millions of UK homes and businesses.

Around two thirds of the sustainable biomass Drax uses each year comes from the US, where Drax owns and operates three pellet plants producing compressed wood pellets sourced from sustainably managed working forests in Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi.

The plants also deliver economic growth and jobs in the US south.

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.

Its 3,400 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/us

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.

Pellet production and supply:

Drax owns and has interests in 17 pellet mills in the US South and Western Canada which have the capacity to manufacture 4.9 million tonnes of compressed wood pellets (biomass) a year. 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

Drax support for US South forest initiative helps quail return to family land after 40-year hiatus

19 August 2021

News

For the first time in 40 years, Miles Goggans and his brother-in-law heard the quail calling through the pines on a recent holiday at his family forest in southeastern Arkansas.

“It was exciting to hear – I hadn’t heard quail on our land since I was a kid back in the 1970s,”

said Goggans, a sixth-generation landowner in the US southeast – heartland of the American forestry industry.

“They all disappeared after the big drought in the 1980s when the land was in cotton. But now they’re back – hearing the quail really demonstrates the positive effect that actively managing the forests can have on an area in a relatively short period of time,” he added.

Miles Goggans, a sixth-generation landowner in the US southeast. Photo credit: Tabitha Holloway at the Arkansas Department of Agriculture, Forestry Division

For the past three years, Goggans has participated in the Morehouse Family Forest Initiative (MFFI) – a conservation program set up in 2017 through a partnership with Drax Biomass and the American Forest Foundation.

The project encourages sustainable management of the forests surrounding Drax’s Morehouse Bioenergy pellet plant by connecting landowners with natural resource professionals who can help them achieve their objectives for their forest.

For family forest owners – who own around 80 percent of the forests in the US south – these goals typically include improving the wildlife habitat and recreational value of their property for activities such as hunting, while also ensuring the growth of high-value sawtimber for long-term returns.

Harvesting the small, misshapen and diseased trees in a process known as thinning is important to healthy forests because it ensures there is enough space and light to help the stronger, healthier trees to grow better, as these produce the high-value sawtimber needed for construction and furniture.

Thinning also has environmental benefits – improving the habitat for many wildlife and plant species endemic to the southern US, such as the quail on Goggans’s land.

“Measures like thinning out the trees and prescribed burning help open up the forest, which encourages new growth of plants and wildflowers as well as the insects and birds that depend on them,”

said Austin Klais, wildlife biologist from Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever, which works with landowners like Goggans through the MFFI.

“Quail is one of a number of species where we’ve seen a drastic decline in recent decades – at least partially due to a lack of active forest management. Seeing the return of birds such as quail is an indicator of a forest landscape that is healthy and biodiverse,” Klais said.

For Goggans, managing the forest to enhance wildlife habitat was a primary objective. For Dr. Glen Melton, another beneficiary of MFFI’s program, it’s also about the future.

“Yes – we are cutting trees, but we are also growing more. Actively managing the forests provides economic and environmental benefits – it results in better quality trees, more wildlife and healthier forests,” he said.

Melton, who is from Louisiana, made his first foray into forestry ownership with the 20 acres he inherited from his uncle – alongside a 1965 Ford pickup truck – when he was a young student at veterinary college.

“At the time I was more excited about the truck than the land, but over time I’ve realised that the 20 acres of land was by far the most valuable gift I could ever receive. I see my role here as one of stewardship – my legacy is to be able to leave this land in better shape than it was when I first found it,” said Melton.

ENDS

Media contacts

Selina Williams
Media Manager
E: [email protected]

Editor’s Notes

  • The MFFI project with Drax works in the Northeast Louisiana parishes of Morehouse, Ouachita, Union and Winn, and the Southeast Arkansas counties of Ashley, Bradley, Drew and Lincoln.
  • MFFI is part of American Forest Foundation’s larger Southern Woods for At-Risk Wildlife Partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which helps southern family forest owners protest at-risk wildlife while encouraging sustainable wood production.
  • MFFI encourages sustainable forest management through certification in the American Tree Farm System – an internationally recognized certification program designed for family and small forest owners administered by the non-profit American Forest Foundation.
  • This project is one of a number of initiatives of Drax’s to engage with local stakeholders on sustainable sourcing and forest management practices.
  • The bioenergy market can play an important role providing an outlet for small, misshapen and diseased trees that need to be removed from forests to help the remaining trees grow better.
  • The income from thinnings can help pay for some of the investments and annual costs landowners lay out in planting, growing and maintaining forests, providing an additional incentive to keep forests as forests.
  • A report by Forest2Market shows that a healthy forest products market supports keeping forests as forests, increasing growth and carbon storage, as it provides a financial incentive to landowners to keep planting trees instead of turning the land over to pasture or urbanization.

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.

Its 3,400 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.

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.

Pellet production and supply:

Drax owns and has interests in 17 pellet mills in the US South and Western Canada which have the capacity to manufacture 4.9 million tonnes of compressed wood pellets (biomass) a year. 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: 

Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Louisiana educators learn about bugs, birds and wildlife in Drax-supported environment workshop

12 August 2021

News

Teachers, girl scout leaders and other youth educators have been finding new ways to bring environmental education to life with Drax Biomass.

The renewable energy company sponsored a day of activities in Pineville, Louisiana, run by Project Learning Tree, to help teachers with lesson plans and a variety of resources and fun activities to help young people learn about the environment around them and how to take care of it.

Workshop attendees participated in various games and activities including “Tree Factory” which explains the life cycle of trees, “Birds and Bugs,” which teaches children about how insects camouflage themselves and “Water Wonders,” which demonstrates how the water cycle works.

Teachers taking part in the “Birds and Bugs” activity.

Girl Scout Troop Leader Jessica Hall said:

“One of our main focuses in the Girl Scouts is getting our troops out into nature and teaching them about the environment. The workshop has given me great, practical activities that I can use with my girls as well as sharing with the 20 other troops across Bossier Parish. I can’t wait to try the ‘Birds and Bugs’ game on our upcoming hiking day where we visit a local wildlife refuge.”

Drax Biomass sponsored the workshop at the Alexandria Forestry Center in Pineville, La., including supplying 100 copies of a lesson and activity guidebook for teachers and several activity kits for use on the day that each participant got to take with them.

The activities can be done in a classroom or outdoors and can be easily adapted to suit Kindergarten through grade 8. The activities can be integrated into lesson plans for all subject areas, in particular science, math, reading, writing and social studies and can help to improve critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Drax Biomass Senior Vice President Matt White said:

“Project Learning Tree is a great initiative and we’re pleased to support a workshop like this one. Fostering an appreciation for our environment at a young age is so important as it encourages the next generation to play their part in conserving the natural world around us, which is essential for protecting our quality of life.”

Drax Biomass forestry colleagues L-R: James Pendarvis, Bretta Palmer, John McDowell, Steven Galloway and Kay Campbell.

Project Learning Tree – an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative – aims to promote greater awareness and knowledge of the environment through hands-on experience and engaging activities that can be integrated into the school curriculum.

Project Learning Tree Louisiana State Coordinator and employee of the USDA Forest Service, Stacy Blomquist, said:

“We’re so grateful to Drax for their support with the workshop. The day was a great success and everyone who attended said they were looking forward to incorporating the activities they’d learned into lesson plans.”

The workshop was attended by teachers and a diverse range of professionals who work with young people including members of organizations such as the Girl Scouts and 4-H which is a club dedicated to teaching children about the environment.

Drax Biomass is committed to supporting the communities local to its operations through a variety of measures that include sponsoring educational programs and providing financial support in times of crisis, including during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Pic caption: Alexandra Senior High School teachers Yasmine Russ and Veronica Guillory.

ENDS

Media contacts:

 

Annmarie Sartor

Drax Biomass Communications Officer

E:[email protected]

T: +1 318-801-0046

 

  

Editor’s Notes

  • Project Learning Tree is an environmental education program designed for teachers and other educators, parents and community leaders working with youth from preschool through grade 12. PLT is an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
  • Project Learning Tree uses trees and forests as windows on the world to increase students’ understanding of the environment and the actions they can take to conserve it.
  • Since 1976, PLT has reached 138 million students and trained 765,000 educators to help students learn how to think about complex environmental issues.
  • To find out more about Project Learning Tree training workshops and how you can attend, contact your state coordinator here.
  • Drax’s support for communities in Louisiana include sponsored learning programs through the Northeast Louisiana Children’s Museum and On the Go America, alongside support for the Boys & Girls clubs of North Louisiana to help children make healthier choices.
  • In the past 12 months, Drax has supported families in Northeast and Central Louisiana who were impacted by Hurricane Laura and donated $20,000 to help rebuild the public pavilion in the town of Olla and to repair the roof of Urania’s recreational hall following Hurricane Laura.

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.

Its 3,400 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.

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.

Pellet production and supply:
Drax owns and has interests in 17 pellet mills in the US South and Western Canada which have the capacity to manufacture 4.9 million tonnes of compressed wood pellets (biomass) a year. 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: 

Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.

For more information visit www.drax.com/us

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner responds to IPCC report

9 August 2021

News
Will Gardiner, CEO, Drax Group

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner said:

 

“Today’s IPCC report provides a stark warning about what will happen if we don’t act now to address climate change. Negative emissions solutions are proven and ready to go, but must be deployed much faster if we are to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and cap global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.

“With the right government support, Drax is ready to invest in scaling up bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to deliver millions of tonnes of negative emissions as early as 2027, creating new green jobs and clean growth while tackling climate change.”

 

Background:

 

  • The UN’s IPCC and the UK’s independent advisory panel the Climate Change Committee have both said that negative emissions from BECCS will be needed to address the climate crisis.
  • Developing BECCS at Drax would support thousands of jobs during construction at its peak including in construction, the supply chain and the wider economy. This is in addition to the tens of thousands of other jobs created and supported across the Humber region as part of the decarbonisation of the UK’s largest – and most carbon intensive – industrial cluster where 55,000 people are employed in energy, manufacturing and engineering.
  • BECCS at Drax will save the UK £13 billion over the coming decade and twice that to meet net zero according to a new report by energy consultancy Baringa.
  • Negative emissions technologies include BECCS, direct air capture and storage (DACS), and natural climate solutions (NCS) such as afforestation.
  • BECCS is the only negative emissions technology that also delivers the renewable electricity needed for a decarbonising economy.
  • The Coalition for Negative Emissions’ Report, produced with knowledge and advisory support from McKinsey, says Paris Agreement climate targets will be missed without an industrial scale up of negative emissions.
    • The report found that at least 1 Gigatonne a year of negative emissions from BECCS is needed globally by 2025 to keep global warming within the Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.
    • Currently, only 0.1 Gt is being delivered today, according to the report.
  • Negative emissions solutions BECCS, DACS and NCS are proven, ready for deployment and scale up, and can provide 1 Gt or more each of negative emissions.

Drax Group’s Pinnacle donates $50,000 to wildfire-hit communities in British Columbia

15 July 2021

News
Canadian wildfires

VANCOUVER — Pinnacle, part of Drax Group, is donating C$50,000 to Canada’s Red Cross to support relief efforts for small communities hit by recent wildfires in Canada’s western-most province of British Columbia (BC).

The funds donated will help pay for emergency shelters and lodging for evacuees, basic needs for families such as food and clothing, emotional support to help survivors with loss and hardship and helping families separated by the fires to come back together.

The Canadian Red Cross is working alongside First Nations and provincial, local and governments to support individuals, families and communities impacted by the wildfires in BC. This includes family reunification services so family and friends can ensure their loved ones are safe and well.

Andrea Johnston, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Pinnacle, said:

“This year has been hard for many people in this region – first the Covid-19 pandemic and now this searing heat, which combined with unprecedented dry conditions has led to a number of wildfires that have devasted the lives and homes of many people in these communities.

“We believe it’s important to support the people in the areas where we operate and that’s why we’re donating C$50,000 to Canada’s Red Cross to help those in British Columbia to take the first steps towards repairing their lives.”

Pinnacle, which was acquired by British energy company Drax Group in April, is headquartered in Vancouver and has operations across BC and Alberta in Canada and Alabama in the US.

The company is committed to supporting the communities in which it operates by promoting sustainable forestry and investing in local economic development. Seven of its pellet mills are located in BC where the fires first broke out earlier this month.

The wildfires spread across BC following record-breaking temperatures close to 50 C, completely destroying the village of Lytton. Hundreds of people have lost property and land and been evacuated from their homes in surrounding communities.

Prolonged heat and dry conditions mean that much of the province is still at risk and fire crews have already been battling hundreds of wildfires.

The Government of Canada and the Government of British Columbia will each match every dollar donated to the Canadian Red Cross (CRC), which means that every $1 donated will become $3 to support those affected by the wildfires.

To donate to the Red Cross B.C. Fire Appeal:

Photo captions: There are currently more than 300 active wildfires across British Columbia. Photo Credit: Canadian Red Cross BC/Yukon Region 

Media contacts: 

Karen Brandt 

Pinnacle Communications 

E: [email protected] 

T: 250 510 0545 

  

 

Editor’s Notes 

  • Pinnacle produces sustainable compressed wood pellets at its pellet plants in Canada and the US. Pinnacle’s wood pellets are principally sourced from sawdust and other materials left over from existing sawmilling activity, which would otherwise be left to decompose or be burned. 
  • Some of the pellets are shipped to Drax Power Station in England and used to generate renewable electricity for millions of UK homes and businesses. The rest is sold to other customers around the world.
  • Pinnacle’s pellet plants also deliver economic growth and jobs in Canada.

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.

Its 3,400 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.

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.

Pellet production and supply:
Drax owns and has interests in 17 pellet mills in the US South and Western Canada which have the capacity to manufacture 4.9 million tonnes of compressed wood pellets (biomass) a year.

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 20% 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:  

Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.

For more information visit www.drax.com

Bechtel and Drax partner to explore global opportunities for new build BECCS

4 June 2021

News
  • Bechtel, a world leader in engineering, construction and project management has entered into a strategic partnership with renewable energy company Drax, to explore options and locations to construct new Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) plants globally.
  • Scaling up BECCS sustainably over the coming decades will be critical to delivering the Paris Agreement climate targets and keeping the world on a pathway of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees.
  • The companies will also work together to identify how the design of a new build BECCS plant can be optimised using the latest technology and best practice in engineering design.

Bechtel has entered into a partnership with renewable energy company Drax to identify opportunities to construct new Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) power plants around the world.

Drax is the largest decarbonisation project in Europe having converted its power station near Selby in North Yorkshire to use sustainable biomass instead of coal.

By deploying BECCS’ vital negative emissions technology, Drax aims to go further, by becoming a carbon negative company by 2030.

Analysis by independent experts including the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and International Energy Agency has identified that BECCS and other technologies that can remove emissions from the atmosphere will need to be developed at a global scale over the coming years to limit climate change to 1.5 degrees of warming.

Bechtel will focus its study on strategically important regions for new build BECCS plants, including North America and Western Europe, as well as reviewing how to optimise the design of a BECCS plant using state-of-the-art engineering to maximise efficiency, performance and cost.

Jamie Cochrane, Bechtel Manager of Energy Transition said:

“Technological advancements have created new opportunities to improve how we bring power to communities worldwide. We are resolved to work with our customers on projects that deliver effective ways to contribute to a clean energy future. Tackling the big global challenges related to climate change is key to meeting aggressive environmental targets and we are proud to partner with Drax to optimise design and explore locations for the new generation of BECCS facilities.”

Jason Shipstone, Drax Group Chief Innovation Officer, said:

“Negative emissions technologies such as BECCS are crucial in tackling the global climate crisis and at Drax we’re already planning to retrofit this to our UK power station, demonstrating global climate leadership in the transformation of a former coal-fired power station.

“We’re interested in potential opportunities for exporting BECCS overseas, where Drax could help other countries take positive action to address the climate crisis and meet the Paris climate commitments by using innovative carbon capture technology to permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere.”

Negative emissions technologies remove more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than they emit and are widely accepted by the world’s leading authorities on climate change as being essential in the fight against climate change.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Bechtel’s study for Drax will:

  • Establish an integrated design for new build BECCS power plants.
  • Assess viability of strategic locations for new build plants.
  • Provide strategic information to enable Drax to build the business case.

About BECCS at Drax:

  • International organisations – such as the International Energy Agency – recognise that BECCS is the most mature negative emissions technology. They estimate that approximately 1.3 GtCO2 of negative emissions from BECCS is required globally every year to reach net zero.
  • Drax aims to deploy BECCS on two of its biomass generating units by 2030 capturing and permanently storing up to eight million tonnes of CO2 a year – a significant proportion of the 53MtCO2 of negative emissions from BECCS the UK’s independent Climate Change Committee says are needed in order for the UK to reach its climate targets.
  • Governments enhanced commitments to reduce emissions by 2035 and phase out coal, alongside the UNIPCC and recent IEA’s reports, also reinforce how net zero is only achievable through negative emissions and sustainable BECCS.
  • BECCS is the only negative emissions technology that generates power whilst also capturing and permanently storing carbon away.

Media contacts:

Mat Ovenden
Manager Communications and External Affairs, Bechtel
E: [email protected]
T: +1 346 241 6701
T: + 1 713 235 3041

Ben Wicks
Media Manager (BECCS and Customers), Drax
E: [email protected]
T: +44 7761 525 662

About Bechtel

Bechtel is a trusted engineering, construction and project management partner to industry and government. Differentiated by the quality of our people and our relentless drive to deliver the most successful outcomes, we align our capabilities to our customers’ objectives to create a lasting positive impact. Since 1898, we have helped customers complete more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries on all seven continents that have created jobs, grown economies, improved the resiliency of the world’s infrastructure, increased access to energy, resources, and vital services, and made the world a safer, cleaner place.

Bechtel serves the Energy; Infrastructure; Nuclear, Security & Environmental; and Mining & Metals markets. Our services span from initial planning and investment, through start-up and operations. www.bechtel.com

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.

Its 3,400 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.

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.

Pellet production and supply:

Drax owns and has interests in 17 pellet mills in the US South and Western Canada which have the capacity to manufacture 4.9 million tonnes of compressed wood pellets (biomass) a year. 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 20% 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: 

Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.

For more information visit www.drax.com/us

Drax Group CEO marks COP26 go-ahead announcement

14 May 2021

News
A pylon carries electricity transmission lines from Cruachan Hydroelectric Power Station above Loch Awe in the mountains of the West Highlands of Scotland

“COP26 gives us a unique opportunity to set a clear pathway to net zero emissions globally and will be the best chance the world has to come together and set ambitious goals to tackle the climate crisis.

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner in the control room at Drax Power Station

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner in the control room at Drax Power Station [Click to view/download]

“In the last decade the UK has decarbonised its electricity system faster than any other in the world, however if we are to reach the targets set in Paris, then we must continue to show global leadership and make the next 10 years the decade of delivery.”

 

Photo caption: A pylon carries electricity transmission lines from Cruachan pumped hydro storage power station above Loch Awe in the mountains of the West Highlands of Scotland [view/download]