Drax begins biomass power generation

December
10, 2013, North Yorkshire, England – Drax has officially opened its doors,
becoming the UK’s largest single renewable electricity generator through the
operation of the new biomass facilities launched on the site.

Energy
and Climate Change Secretary, the Rt Hon Edward Davey MP, was on hand to open
new systems to receive, store and distribute sustainable biomass and fully
support Drax Power Station’s first converted biomass unit, as well as further units
as they are converted.

The
biomass conversion will ultimately see three of the six generating units at the
power station converted to burn sustainable biomass in place of coal. The first
unit has been running successfully on sustainable biomass since the beginning
of April, with the second planned for next year and the third in 2016. Each
converted unit will provide enough renewable electricity to meet needs of over one million homes.

As
a low cost, low carbon and reliable form of renewable power, sustainable
biomass is an essential part of the energy mix which can be counted on to be
available when it is needed.

Across
its full life cycle sustainable biomass can deliver major carbon savings of
around 80% relative to coal. Drax has operated a robust and independently
audited sustainability policy for over five years. This means that all of the
biomass used is sustainable, protects biodiversity, prevents deforestation and
delivers genuine carbon savings over the short, medium and long term.

“This fundamental change has implications far
beyond Drax and even our supply chain,” says Dorothy Thompson CBE, chief executive
of Drax. “Sustainable biomass has a critical role in the UK’s electricity mix.
It is the only renewable which can deliver low carbon electricity on demand, at
the scale the grid needs and precisely when it’s needed. It is also a low cost
renewable which will help to manage the expense of the UK’s transition to a low
carbon economy.”

Drax
Power Station is currently the largest single emitter of carbon dioxide in the
UK, but conversion of three of its six generating units to sustainable biomass
will see its emissions reduced by around 10 million tonnes on today’s levels.
This will help to tackle climate change and will form a crucial part of the
UK’s power mix.