The UK’s largest coal-fired power station – Drax in Yorkshire – plans to convert half of its boilers to run on biomass in a bid to cut carbon emissions by 80%.
UK energy secretary Ed Davey today opened the £700 million Drax coal-to-biomass conversion plant project which will see three of the six coal-burning units convert to run on biomass by 2016.
The 4GW plant, which is the UK’s largest power station producing enough electricity to meet 8% of the UK electricity demand, or the equivalent of enough electricity to power 6 million homes, will reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 10 million tonnes by 2016.
“It’s crucial that we safeguard our energy security by generating green electricity on UK soil that protects bill payers from volatile foreign energy imports,” Davey said.
“Our coal industry has powered Britain for more than a century, and today we’re seeing a clear road map for its future – whether by converting existing coal plants to cleaner fuels, or building state-of-the-art power stations that mean coal is truly clean. While at the same time creating new green jobs for Yorkshire.”
At present 40% of UK electricity comes from coal, while 20% comes from old nuclear.
However, the government plans to phase out “old and polluting” coal plants by 2030 replacing them with clean coal or sustainably sourced biomass that has been fitted with carbon capture storage (CCS) technology.
It is hoped 12GW of CCS capacity will be in place in the UK by 2030, rising to 40GW by 2050.
To further this ambition, the government today pledged multi-million funding to further the White Rose CCS project, also based at the Drax site.
The White Rose project aims to design and build a £2 billion specialist 426MW clean coal power plant with full CCS capability to provide enough electricity to power more than 630,000 homes.
It also encompasses the planned development of a CO2 transport and storage network – the Yorkshire Humber CCS Trunkline – which will create capacity for further CCS projects in the region.
Drax, which is developing the project with Alstom and BOC, says the plant will be the largest oxy combustion plant in the world with the capability to safely capture 90% of the Drax station’s emissions.
Together the two projects could support 3,200 jobs in Yorkshire and the Humber and provide carbon transport infrastructure to build a “clean energy industry” in the region.
The government funding will be used to carry out detailed engineering, planning and financial work to finalise and de-risk all prospects of the project ahead of taking final investment decisions and proceeding to construction.
“I’m proud that the UK is at the forefront of developing carbon capture and storage, which could be a game-changer in tackling climate change and provide a huge economic advantage not just to this region, but to the whole country,” Davey added.
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