Drax Group has submitted plans to build the world’s largest carbon capture facility at its North Yorkshire power station.
The company plans to invest £2 billion this decade to develop two units, creating and supporting thousands of jobs, and enabling the UK to lead the world in a vital new technology needed to address the climate crisis.
Work to build bioenergy with carbon capture and storage could start as soon as 2024. Once operational they would capture at least eight million tonnes of CO2 per year.
Read more: Drax agrees to keep coal on standby as government shores up winter energy options
Will Gardiner, Drax Group chief executive, said: “Drax’s BECCS project provides the UK with a once in a generation opportunity to kickstart a whole new sector of the economy and lead the world in a vital green technology needed to address the climate crisis.
“Drax aims to invest billions of pounds and create thousands of jobs developing BECCS in the UK, provided that the UK Government has in place policies to support the feasibility and delivery of negative emissions technologies.
“BECCS at Drax will not only permanently remove millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year, but it will also generate the reliable, renewable power this country needs. No other technology can do both.”
The submission of its application for a development consent order to the Planning Inspectorate marks a major milestone in the project and follows two major consultations.
Deploying BECCS on two of its generating units will support Drax’s plans to become a carbon negative company by 2030 – permanently removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than is produced right across its operations.
It would link into the Zero Carbon Humber pipeline plan as a western anchor for the scheme set to transport hydrogen too in a dual proposal, and as part of the East Coast Cluster, feeding into the depleted Endurance oil and gas fields under the near North Sea.
That has been selected by the UK government as a forerunner in industrial decarbonisation.
As reported, Drax plans to source up to 80 per cent of the materials and services it needs to build its BECCS project from British businesses. It recently announced a partnership with British Steel to identify opportunities to source the steel to build it from its Scunthorpe and Teesside steelworks.
Read next:
Yorkshire farm generates first carbon credits in pioneering new Net Zero approach from agriculture
Two of the eight shortlisted sites for Rolls-Royce nuclear reactor manufacturing are in Grimsby area
Huge Hornsea Three offshore wind project wins government renewable subsidy backing
Equinor and SSE Thermal to buy Saltend power station for £341m
Petrol-head Guy Martin gets on board with Humber's Net Zero ambition
