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Drax Power Station, which has dominated the landscape of North Yorkshire near Selby for more than half a century Another lease of life this week. The biomass producing plant with 12 water cooling towers leads to at least 2031 thanks to the re -support of the government up to at least 2031.
Drax was built in 1974 as a coal system and later converted into burning wood pellets. It has overtaken many others, but the longevity is not popular. From green activists to the conservative party, who abruptly retired to Drax after leaving the office last year, it is mocked, as Greenpeace puts it, a subsidy fraud.
This explains the defense tone of the announcement of fresh support this week for Drax and the fact that Ed Miliband, Energy Secretary, did not make it personally. It was left to the Minister of Energy Michael Shanks to complain about his conservatives’ energy stain and to describe a “much more limited” role for Drax from 2027 with a halving of public subsidies.
This is a painful compromise, but it is also necessary. It only helps Miliband’s ambition to convert Great Britain into the cleaning of electricity generation by 2030 if they believe that the output of carbon is completely different by burning wood pellets than burning gas. But Drax has a clear advantage over the new nuclear power plants that the government is Backing For the energy transfer: it already exists.
The shares of the Drax Group, the company to which the power plant belongs, rose out of relief in the news and because the Miliband market does not believe. It should still be. Many complex and costly investments are required immediately so that the power grid works better and the power generation of fossil fuels reduces at low levels. It can be assumed that Drax will be with us for some time.
Drax benefits from a special regulatory arbitrage that means that the generation of biomass according to British and European carbon standards is evaluated with zero. The pellets, which it mainly imports from North America, count as a renewable power source, although according to the Ember research group, emissions are higher than any other British power plant. It was too Fine fines £ 25 million Last year to lead not adequate procurement data.
This environmental trick no longer convinces. According to Drax, his emissions are compensated for by the fact that carbon -absorbing trees in turn form to make the pellets. Maybe it’s so absurd to ignore them completely. Biomass should fall somewhere between wind power and fossil fuel in the green main register.
But Drax ‘Environmentally independent is a bad argument to conclude it by ending all support, as some wanted. This would have risked about 5 percent of the future creation capacity of the UK and increased the dependence of the network of gas and nuclear power plants (together with European connection connections) for power in bad weather for solar and wind production.
The wind made 30 percent of the electricity generated in Great Britain last year. However, its expansion does not take off the need for gas or biomass systems that can be switched on if necessary. The more the system decarbonizes, the more fragile it could be when such plants lose their business against cheaper renewable energies.
A decarbonization study last year of the National Engineering Policy Center concluded that the United Kingdom may have to build more gas -fired plants in order to maintain the production capacity in the future. The official National Energy System operator, who warned against the pace of change, “at the border of what is feasible”, supported the storage of Drax for reasons of energy security.
The government has tacitly granted the point. Instead of treating Drax as a renewable energy source in a conventional financial manner, the deal is a capacity contract with a gas -fired operator. Drax will remain on duty, but no more than half of today’s level is operated, and “excess profits” are withdrawn.
It is unclear what happens after March 2031 when the deal has expired. Drax wants to install CO2 collection and storage devices so that no greenhouse gases can no longer hand over and exchange emission predites. This technology is undetected and very expensive, although Drax is one step ahead.
I bet on further delays, not only on CO2 recording, but on the schedule for clean energy from Miliband. This is the message of the contract this week with Drax. Having a view is admirable, but the lights that emanates by closing an unpopular power plant would be ruthless.
