Drax backs sustainable biomass rules
22 Aug 2013
Drax today backed government plans to strip biomass projects of financial support if their fuel comes from unsustainable sources.
The coal plant operator, which also owns the UK’s largest biomass plant, supported today’s announcement by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) that projects unable to prove their biomass feedstock comes from sustainable sources could be stripped of their Renewable Obligation (RO) support payments.
Drax chief executive Dorothy Thompson said: “Drax welcomes publication of these sustainability criteria. We have had our own criteria in place since 2008, and have long advocated the need for mandatory criteria, which we hope to see harmonised across the EU in time.
“Mandatory criteria are the best way to ensure that all the biomass used in electricity generation is demonstrably sustainable and delivers major carbon savings relative to fossil fuels.”
Drax currently operates one 585MW biomass unit that burns around 6,500 tonnes of material each day. Its feedstock includes sustainable forestry and forestry residues, residual agricultural products, such as straw, sunflower seed husks and peanut husks, and purpose-grown energy crops.
It plans to convert its two remaining coal-fired units into 585MW biomass plants from next year onwards and is currently in the process of building new delivery, storage and distribution systems to improve the efficiency of its operational biomass unit.
