Drax to cease burning coal and switch fully to biomass

• 4 years ago (2020-02-28)
• David Flin

Coal 296 Europe 1089

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Drax Group has announced that it will stop burning coal by March 2021, far ahead of the UK government’s 2025 deadline. Drax also released full year 2019 financial results and provided an update of its biomass strategy.

The company said that the decision to stop using coal came after a comprehensive review of operations. Drax said that it did not expect to use coal after March 2021, but that it will ensure its two remaining coal units stay available until September 2022, in line with its existing capacity market agreements.

Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax, said: “Ending the use of coal at Drax is a landmark in our continued efforts to transform the business and become a world-leading carbon negative company by 2030. Drax’s journey away from coal began some years ago, and I’m proud to say we’re going to finish the job well ahead of the Government’s 2025 deadline.”

Gardiner said that Drax is implementing a new biomass strategy over the next seven years that aims to increase self-supply of biomass from the current 1.5 million tons to 5 million tons. The strategy also aims to reduce the cost of biomass generation to £50 per MWh, down from approximately £75 per MWh today.