Drax aims to end coal burning next year – ahead of the 2025 deadline

Drax does not expect to use coal after March 2021, but says it will ensure its two remaining coal units remain available until September 2022 in line with its existing Capacity Market agreements. 

Sited above the huge Selby coalfield in North Yorkshire, the power station, first generated electricity using coal in the 1970s. Once the second half of the station was built in the 1980s, it became the largest power station in the UK with the capacity to generate electricity for 6mn households. 

However, over the last decade, four of the power station’s six generating units have been converted to use biomass, delivering carbon savings of more than 80% compared to when they used coal. The company says this has transformed Drax into the UK’s largest renewable power generator and the biggest decarbonisation project in Europe. 

The move will lead to a reduction in the workforce at the power station – trade unions and employee representatives will be consulted over the coming months and support is being provided to those affected, says the company. Drax says it is also talking to the government and industrial businesses across the North about cooperating in establishing a new Zero Carbon Skills Taskforce to help people in the region gain the skills and expertise required to seize new job opportunities as the UK moves towards a net zero economy. 

Drax CEO Will Gardiner said: ‘By using sustainable biomass we have not only continued generating the secure power millions of homes and businesses rely on, we have also played a significant role in enabling the UK’s power system to decarbonise faster than any other in the world. Having pioneered biomass technology, we’re now planning to go further by using bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) to achieve our ambition of being carbon negative by 2030.’