Drax shelves its green fuel idea (From York Press)

Drax shelves its green fuel idea

10:45am Saturday 20th February 2010

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(1)

THE country’s biggest power station has shelved plans to replace coal with greener fuels because of the cost.

Drax, near Selby, is sometimes described as the country’s biggest polluter – by virtue of it being the country’s largest power station – although Drax states it is the cleanest and most efficient power station in the country.

It had pledged to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 17.5 per cent – or 3.5 million tonnes per year – by burning biomass fuels rather than coal. Biomass is material like wood chippings and straw which is crushed into pellets before being burned. Drax was also testing the cultivation of willow for burning.

But Dorothy Thompson, Drax’s chief executive, has now said biomass was too expensive and it was cheaper to continue burning coal. She blamed the Government for failing to provide enough subsidy to make biomass more competitive.

Richard Harrison, a spokesman for Drax, denied it affected the power station’s green credentials. He said work worth £80 million had already been carried out to ensure that Drax could produce electricity by burning bio-fuels. He said the capability to burn biomass would still be maintained – although the actual burning of biomass would be delayed – and that other work at the plant would also cut emissions.

He said: “Our turbine upgrade is a £100 million spend which will further improve the efficiency of the power plant. It is the biggest turbine modernisation in UK history. To suggest our green credentials are being blown out of the water is just not the case.”

He said the upgrade would see a saving of a million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year which the Drax website said was the equivalent of taking 275,000 cars off the road.

But Drax’s decision to shelve plans to replace coal are likely to mean the Government will miss its renewable energy target which was to increase the amount of electricity produced by renewables from 5.5 per cent a year to 30 per cent by 2020. Tom Holvey, the Liberal Democat’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Selby and Ainsty, has now called for the Government to provide greater support for Drax. He said: “I have written to the Energy Minister, Lord Hunt, asking for greater financial support to be given to the power station.

“Drax is incredibly important to the economy in terms of both employment and power supply, but it is also the largest single source of C02 in the country. If the government is serious about reducing carbon emissions then it needs to help Drax switch to biomass.”

• Print
• Email
• Share
• Comments(1)