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ISSN 2753-7757 (Online)
View of smoke emissions from Drax power station against darkening sky Photo: Adobe Stock
Once Western Europe’s largest coal-fired power station, the Drax plant is now the single largest generator of renewable power in the UK

Photo: Adobe Stock

After almost half a century, coal-fired power generation at the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, UK, has officially come to an end.

Once Western Europe’s largest coal-fired power station, the plant opened in 1974 following the discovery of the Selby coal field in 1967. The station provided enough power for around two million homes and in 1986, power generation doubled to just under 4 GW.

 

Today, the plant is the single largest generator of renewable power in the UK, with four of the six generating units having been converted to use sustainable biomass. The units generated 12.7 TWh of electricity last year.

 

Drax will now embark on a decommissioning process to remove coal-related infrastructure from the site, which will start with the flue gas desulphurisation plant that was built in the 1990s to remove 90% of the sulphur from the plant’s air emissions.

 

Commenting on the news, Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer, Drax Group, says: ‘Ending the use of coal at Drax is a landmark moment in our efforts to become a world-leading carbon negative company. By converting the plant to use sustainable biomass we have not only continued generating the secure power millions of homes and businesses rely on, but we have also played a significant role in enabling the UK’s power system to decarbonise faster than any other in the world.’

 

He continues: ‘We’re now planning to go further by using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to permanently remove millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year, and we are engaged in discussions with the UK government to move this £2bn project forward.’