Drax power station closure. In 2023, it produced about 5% of the UK's electricity. Drax has announced that almost 50 years of power generation from coal at its North Yorkshire power station has come to an end. It is situated on the River Ouse between Selby and Goole. 6 GW capacity for biomass and had a 1. It has a 2. It is also known as UK Oxy CCS Demonstration Project (White Rose CCS Project). Officially opened in 1974, once the second half of the power station was built in the Eighties, it became the largest power station in the UK with the capacity to generate electricity for six million households. Half of Drax, Britain's biggest power station, could be shut down or mothballed because it is struggling to make money, its chief executive has warned. DRAX has announced the official end of coal-fired generation at its North Yorkshire, UK power station after almost 50 years. Drax also recently closed an existing pellet plant in British Columbia, citing a challenging business climate. — The pellet plant in Williams Lake is set to close by the end of this year, according to a news release issued by Drax, the energy company that operates the facility. The UK announced reduced subsidies for its Drax power station, which had been converted from burning coal to burning wood biomass. The North Yorkshire-based power station has switched the majority of its units to burning wood pellets Drax says are carbon neutral. - ACRW6M from Alamy's library of millions of high resolution stock photos, illustrations and vectors. Reclaim the Power. I took this image from the nearby village of Snaith. Closure of the last coal power station, owned by Germany's Uniper, brings to a close 142 years of fossil fuel combustion to make electricity. Drax power station in Selby, Yorkshire is old, inefficient, environmentally damaging and will need £billions of subsidies to survive. And saving some of the world’s last intact forests. We argue it should start preparing for closure and its workers retrained for decent jobs elsewhere. Drax is moving move away from a reliance on coal and four of the station’s six boilers have been converted to fire biomass, with plans in the making to repower the other two units to run on gas. As part of the proposed coal closure programme the Group is implementing a broader review of operations at Drax Power Station. But Andy Koss, chief executive of the Drax power station in North Yorkshire, said the deadline would be missed unless ministers put the right incentives in place for gas, biomass or other fuels. government supported the move by providing Drax with roughly a billion pounds in annual subsidies. Dec 11, 2025 · The report also briefly discusses options Drax is considering to help maximize the value of Drax Power Station. 29 GW capacity for coal that was retired in 2021. The power generator says this marks a historic milestone for the company as well as the UK’s transition to a zero-carbon energy future. The UK's wood-burning Drax power plant is being investigated over sustainability compliance. K. Drax power station is a large biomass power station in Drax, North Yorkshire, England. This includes options to utilize multiple generation technologies, including its existing biomass generation, as well as flexible, renewable energy to continue to support U. Despite the UK leading the way in decarbonisation among the G7, the report shows that significant challenges remain in decarbonising the power sector, including the needs to phase Drax has announced that almost 50 years of power generation from coal at its North Yorkshire power station has come to an end. Its name comes from the nearby village of Drax. Above photo: Demonstrators outside the Drax power plant in Yorkshire oppose the burning of wood pellets in August 2024. The UK has announced new subsidies for Drax, the country’s largest power station, despite a long-running battle over whether the wood pellets it burns for fuel are environmentally sustainable. The remaining two coal units,kept open as emergency backup, are due to close this month. It is also where Drax is piloting the groundbreaking negative emissions technology BECCS within its CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage) Incubation (Alliance News) - Drax Group PLC on Monday said it has agreed heads of terms with the UK government for the operation of Drax Power Station after 2027. Drax power station is an operating power station of at least 2676-megawatts (MW) in Drax, Selby, North Yorkshire, United Kingdom with multiple units, some of which are not currently operating. Visitors to Drax Power Station can also explore the surrounding ecology at the Skylark Centre and Nature Reserve, Drax. Drax Group (LSE:DRX) and EDF have both confirmed the closure of coal power units used as back-ups last year, according to National Grid PLC (LSE:NG. The Drax Power Station formerly ran on coal, but began transitioning to burn entirely wood pellets in 2012. The U. While this website mostly features closed power stations, the focus is to document the decline of using highly polluting fossil fuels such as coal and oil. Last June, California climate and environmental justice groups celebrated a victory a long time in the making. After an Download this stock image: Drax Power Station (2 two high hyperboloid cooling towers close-up, bioenergy, carbon capture & storage BECCS) - Selby, North Yorkshire, England, UK. 1 likes, 0 comments - ejfoundation on February 21, 2026: "🌳 It’s time to end the subsidies for Drax - before more cash and trees go up in smoke This week, 14 MPs have called for the UK government to suspend subsidies worth £2 million a day to the owner of Drax power plant - subsidies which are paid for by UK billpayers. Bosses want even more government backing to guarantee its future ― but Drax’s many critics have had enough. The power station used to be Western Europe’s largest coal-fired station but Drax bosses now hail it as a leader in renewables. Drax, near Selby, first started generating electricity using coal discovered close by in the Seventies. Drax Group plc is a leading UK-based global renewable energy company, committed to enabling a zero carbon, lower cost energy future. S. Corporate giants like Drax and Enviva still operate pellet mills in Canada and the U. The power group announced the official end of coal-fired As part of the proposed coal closure programme the Group is implementing a broader review of operations at Drax Power Station. government has cut in half the subsidies it will give to the Drax Power Station, a large North Yorkshire plant. In June 2021, the government said it would end coal power by October 2024. Even so, the forest biomass industry in North America is far from defeated. [5][6] The United Kingdom had continuously burned coal for the generation of electricity since the opening of Britain's Drax has ended coal-fired power generation at its North Yorkshire power plant after 50 years, it said on Tuesday. Using sustainable biomass and hydro, in the first half of 2021 Drax became a purely renewable power generator, producing 12% of the UK’s The U. UK power provider Drax has announced that it could keep its coal-fired power stations in operation beyond their planned closure date of next year due to the energy crisis gripping Europe. [4] In November 2017 the UK Government co-founded the Powering Past Coal Alliance. The plant, which was opened in 1974 and extended in the mid-1980s, has a generating capacity of nearly 4GW and meets around 7-8% of the country’s total electricity needs. Available for both RF and RM licensing. Drax Group plc, trading as Drax, is a renewable energy generation, pellet production and carbon dioxide removal business. Drax Power Station today took a step closer to achieving its coal-free ambitions by taking its fourth coal-fired power generating unit offline as part of a planned outage programme as it prepares to convert it to run on sustainable biomass. Once the second half of the power station was built in the 1980s, it became the largest power station in the UK with the capacity to generate electricity for six million households. On this day in 2020, the York Press reported that hundreds of jobs would be axed as Drax power station announced plans to end its use of coal in… In November 2015, the UK Government announced that all the remaining fourteen coal-fired power stations would be closed by 2025. Drax power station has been a lynchpin of the UK’s energy generation portfolio for decades. Drax has today announced the closure of its last coal-fired units at its Yorkshire power plant, bringing to an end almost 50 years of coal power generation at the site in a move that marks an See the incredible process of electricity generation up close at Drax Power Station in Selby, North Yorkshire, or at our Visitor Centre at Cruachan Power Station between Glasgow and Oban in Scotland. Drax Power Station near Selby in North Yorkshire first started generating electricity using coal in the 1970s. WILLIAMS LAKE, B. Drax’s chief executive Will Gardiner stated that the UK is likely to face a “tough winter” if temperatures are colder than the average. energy supplies. The record low was followed by the symbolic end to coal-fired power generation in Britain with the closure of Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station, making the UK the first major economy to phase out coal power completely. Drax’s biomass energy is not as sustainable as they claim. South. ) ’s system operating wing (ESO). Drax is also the UK’s biggest The government has agreed a new subsidy arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station in north Yorkshire. At the request of the UK Government, Drax has now entered into an agreement with National Grid – in its capacity as the electricity systems operator – pursuant to which its two coal-fired units at Drax Power Station will remain available to provide a “winter contingency” service to the UK power system from October 2022 until the end of RMACRW6M–Drax Power Station (2 two high hyperboloid cooling towers close-up, bioenergy, carbon capture & storage BECCS) - Selby, North Yorkshire, England, UK. The principal enterprises include the biomass fuelled Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, Cruachan Power Station, near Oban in Scotland and pellet production plants across North America. . Describing the decision as “difficult”, Drax blamed the closure on a lack of available fibre following the shutdown of neighbouring sawmills and a failure to secure a reliable local supply. Its generating capacity of 3,906 megawatts (MW), which includes the shut down coal units, is the highest Dec 10, 2025 · The Williams Lake plant in British Columbia employs around 30 full-time staff and is one of several pellet operations run by Drax in Canada. Is Drax energy truly green? However, the UK government has reportedly denied Drax access to subsidies in order to push forward its CCS project. Once the biggest coal fired power station in Western Europe, Drax has now slashed its CO2 emissions from power generation by over 90 percent since 2012, radically transforming the company and securing its place as one of Europe’s lowest carbon utilities. This review aims to support a safe, efficient and lower cost operating model which, alongside a reduction in biomass cost, positions Drax for long-term biomass generation following the end of the current renewable 2 days ago · Ed Miliband is under pressure from MPs to suspend subsidies worth £2m a day paid to the owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire after court documents cast doubt on the company’s Feb 10, 2025 · The government has agreed a new subsidy arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station in north Yorkshire. Feb 27, 2020 · As part of the proposed coal closure programme the Group is implementing a broader review of operations at Drax Power Station. Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK’s biggest renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe. Initially commissioned in 1974 as a state-owned coal plant Drax has had the largest capacity for power generation since then. The UK government is preparing to extend subsidies for Drax’s biomass power station, prompting criticism from campaigners who want the plant to focus on wind and solar technologies. The company is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent Why did Drax Power Station end Britain’s two-month run without burning any coal to generate power? Does this mean coal will make a comeback, or are renewables still set to take the lead? Read on to discover more details about the future of British power today. While Drax Power Station closed its last coal unit in 2023, it continues generating biomass power from its converted units, currently producing about 4% of the UK’s electricity. energy security while potentially meeting the power demands of a large-scale data center, as well as the Drax was originally a coal-fired power plant but the company has converted four of the six units to burn biomass wood pellets, which qualify for renewable energy subsidies: it received £617 million last year. In a statement distributed on Wednesday (Nov. Drax Power Station, located near Selby in North Yorkshire, will be allowed to install the technology in two of its four biomass units, which burn wood pellets to produce electricity. Drax power plant tops the list of largest carbon emitters in the UK, followed by Port Talbot Steelworks and Pembroke gas power station as coal and steel closures shake up rankings. The Yorkshire, England-based power generator Politicians rely on the Drax biomass plant to meet U. 26), Drax says the curtailment and closures of neighbouring 29th January 2011, a cold day and Drax is firing on all cylinders. Yorkshire power station operator Drax has said it is set to sign a final agreement on its new deal with the Government later this year, as the firm posted a dip in profits. Not The power company says the closure of its coal units will cost 230 jobs at the North Yorkshire site. This review aims to support a safe, efficient and lower cost operating model which, alongside a reduction in biomass cost, positions Drax for long-term biomass generation following the end of the current renewable The announcement leaves just one coal-fired power station open in Britain — Ratfcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, run by Düsseldorf-based Uniper — although that is due to close next year as Built close to the now-dormant Selby coalfield, which once delivered the dirtiest fossil fuel to its furnaces, Drax is Britain’s largest power plant, generating around 4% of the country’s The UK will only run one coal power plant this winter after Drax scrapped proposals to keep open two units at its North Yorkshire plant. C. The Drax Power Station, near Selby in North Yorkshire, is a converted coal plant which burns wood pellets. This review aims to support a safe, efficient and lower cost operating model which, alongside a reduction in biomass cost, positions Drax for long-term biomass generation following the end of the current renewable Drax has closed the curtain on its coal operations, putting the government under more pressure to secure supplies ahead of next winter. Across North America and Europe, a movement is taking on the biomass industry. DRAX has announced the official end of coal-fired generation at its North Yorkshire, UK power station after almost 50 years The power company says the closure of its coal units will cost 230 jobs at the North Yorkshire site. In 2020, Drax provided 11% of the UK’s power, the largest of any generator. Find the perfect power station electricity towers stock photo, image, vector, illustration or 360 image. ysrd, injvn, xql1o, ioq3z, gyeth, lo3c, jykpf, j5qzfd, jgr34q, km3ik,