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| The new biomass domes at Drax |
Britain's largest coal-fired power station has become one of Europe's biggest renewable electricity generators today, with the potential for future generation on the site to be based on truly clean coal.
Energy and Climate Change Secretary Edward Davey opened the Drax coal-to-biomass conversion plan, and announced the Government was awarding funding to further the White Rose Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project, also based at the site.
Converting from coal to biomass
Drax plans to transform itself into a predominantly biomass-fueled generator through burning sustainable biomass in place of coal, and in place of coal, and in April 2013 it finished converting one of its generating units to biomass. It plans to convert a further two units by 2016.
The new £700 million planned conversion project will burn wood pellets rather than coal, which Drax calculate will reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent compared to coal. The facilities will provide enough low carbon power to the equivalent of around 1 million homes and will help to safeguard 1,200 jobs and many more in the supply chain and in local communities.
The White Rose proposal is to build a new state-of-the-art 426MWe (gross) clean coal power plant with full carbon capture and storage, bringing clean electricity to over 630,000 homes and capturing and approximately 2 million tonnes of CO2 per year.
The Government is working with industry to create a new cost-competitive Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) industry in the 2020s. Their support for the development of CCS includes:
- a £1 billion commercialisation competition to support practical experience in the design, construction and operation of commercial-sales CCS
- a £125 million, 4-year co-ordinated research, development and innovation programme
- reform of the UK electricity market so CCS will be able to compete with other low-carbon energy sources
How CCS works
CCS allows the safe removal and permanent storage of carbon dioxide emissions from coal and gas power stations, as well as from industrial processes.
If developed at scale CCS could:- allow the safe removal and permanent storage of carbon dioxide emissions from coal and gas power stations
- remove and permanently store emissions from large industrial sources such as steel or cement factories
For more information and a link to the original DECC article, click here.
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