Green light for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage at Drax

Green light for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage at DraxThe Government has approved plans for bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to go ahead at Drax Power Station, in North Yorkshire.The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, Claire Coutinho, has today – 16 January – approved a Development Consent Order (DCO) for Drax Power Ltd’s plans to convert two of its biomass units at the power station to this carbon removals technology.Drax currently has four biomass generating units and produces around 4% of the country’s power and 9% of its renewable electricity.It says the DCO is a major step forward for the project, providing planning consent for its development.Drax says BECCS is currently “the only credible large-scale technology that can both deliver carbon removals and generate renewable power.”The group says its own BECCS plans will enable Drax Power Station to continue to play a critical role in supporting UK energy security and would enable it to remove about eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year when both units are fully operational.Drax Group plans to invest billions in its BECCS plans, subject to the right support from the UK Government.The group says this could deliver up to 10,000 high-skilled jobs in the Humber at the peak of the project’s construction as well as safeguarding 7,000 direct and supply chain jobs.Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group, said: “The DCO approval is another milestone in the development of our BECCS plans, and demonstrates both the continued role that Drax Power Station has in delivering UK energy security and the critical role it could have in delivering large-scale carbon dioxide removals to meet Net Zero targets.“We look forward to working with our supply chain and other partners over the coming years on the project which, when fully operational, will deliver secure renewable power and approximately eight million tonnes of carbon dioxide removals per year.“We welcome the ongoing development of policy support for BECCS and the anticipated launch of a consultation on a bridging mechanism for biomass generators to take them from the end of current renewable schemes through to BECCS operations.”