Drax, UK's largest CO2 emitter, to use biomass

A Drax power station

Drax, the coal-fired power station company and Britain's largest emitter of carbon dioxide, has said it could stop burning coal by 2020 thanks to plans to convert all six units of the coal-fired power station so that it only burns biomass.

Speaking to The Guardian, the company Finance Director Tony Quinlan said, that while "Drax is a viable business today as a coal plant, the opportunity to turn it into a renewable power company is an exciting one and makes sense for the UK's carbon targets and for our shareholders."

While this would be a bold step in the country reaching its target of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, Drax has said it will only go ahead if the government agrees to grant renewable subsidies to such converted coal plants. Currently only purpose-built biomass plants receive extra payouts to cover their higher costs.

"It has not been done before"

If the funding is approved, Drax hopes to convert the first unit with a generating capacity of 660 MW next year. Two more Drax units could be converted to burning biomass by 2015, but Drax has said it could be forced to delay a £2 billion programme to build three dedicated biomass plants as it looks to move away from coal-fired power generation.

"It has not been done before because there hasn't been the need," Quinlan said to the newspaper. Speaking about the company's plans to ditch coal entirely fives years after the units are converted, he said: "If it [the demonstration unit] works then we will develop it as quickly as we can."

Currently Drax already mixes biomass with coal to reduce CO2 emissions, which is seen as renewable due to its ability to be regrown. However some environmentalists have questioned how sustainable biomass actually is, with growing energy crops resulting in rain-forests being destroyed or taking land that can be used for food production.

Drax has said that all of its biomass will be sustainably sourced, such as UK-sourced biomass like tree stumps and corn stubble or wood pellets from the US.

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