Costs £43bn or saves £15bn: Spat over taxpayer billions at Drax carbon capture site
A spat is unfolding between UK power generation giant Drax and a climate think tank over whether a new multi-billion pound energy facility would save or cost the UK taxpayer.
Tomorrow, Drax is expected to receive a government approval decision on a new bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) facility, that has been in the planning stages for several years.
Ember, the think tank in question, today published a report today claiming that the facility’s development and running will cost the UK taxpayer £43.3bn over 25 years, and could require subsidies of up to £1.7bn per year.
The company added that Drax’s rationale behind building the facility in the first place comes to try and stay financially stabilise its existing power plant, the UK’s biggest CO2 emitter, which burns wood as a fuel source.
Currently it generates around four per cent of the country’s power and nine per cent of the UK’s renewable electricity by output.
Today, Drax issued its own self-funded analysis, undertaken by managment consultant firm Baringa, which claims the plant would actually save UK taxpayers £700m per year between 2030-50 totalling around £15bn.
The research goes on to claim that the annual emissions captured by the plant would be the equivalent to 3 million cars off the road or cancelling all annual departing flights from Heathrow.
A Drax spokesperson said that Ember’s analysis “veers between factual inaccuracies and a series of misguided assumptions,” adding that Ember “made clear” in its own report last year that biomass and BECCS play an essential role in the UK’s energy mix on the road to net zero.
Ember has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Drax Group chief executive, Will Gardiner, said: “Our research shows BECCS at Drax Power Station offers the most cost-effective, straightforward and efficient way to help the country meet climate targets and could save billions of pounds, remove millions of tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere and support the UK’s energy security”.
The company is currently being investigated by Ofgem over whether it breached reporting rules in the renewable energy subsidy scheme.
The dispute also rolls on during a week when a consultation is set to begin on Thursday for Drax to win a multi-billion pound biomass contract extension from 2027-2030, news that spiked the company’s share price when first rumoured in recent weeks.
The National Audit Office is set to release a report on the environmental implications of the government’s biomass strategy in the coming weeks.