After persistent opposition from climate groups, Drax has made a decision to cease all plans for Europe's largest gas power plant in North Yorkshire.
The plan was to build two combined cycle gas turbines (CCGTs) in place of two old coal burning units at the Drax site, but it has now been confirmed that this will not go ahead.
The plans have been facing opposition for some time, with green groups arguing for the past three years that these plans were not in alignment with the UK's targets for greenhouse gas emissions reduction. Some of the opposition included a legal battle with the Government, claiming the plant would undermine current legally binding targets that the UK had agreed to. However, this legal challenge failed in the court of appeal last month.
Drax has come ahead of the Government's 2025 ban on coal power and promised from next month to cease its commercial sales of coal-fired electricity. The new focal point will be on burning wood pellets, after a history as one of the UK's biggest coal plan operators. They claim that this is a carbon neutral "renewable" energy source as although the wood emits carbon while burning in the power plant, the tree absorbs carbon dioxide before this. It's still under debate by scientists and environmentalists whether this can be considered sustainable energy when it involves growing trees and shipping wood pellets.
The chief executive of Drax Group, Will Gardiner, has claimed that if the company's plans to buy a major manufacturer of wood pellets goes to plan it would "position Drax as the world's leading sustainable biomass generation and supply business".
Using carbon capture technology to trap emissions from wood burning, Drax claim its power plant could become carbon negative by 2030, but both green groups and scientists have disagreed with this.
The new determination to stop the gas project will be a big cost to the company, and could amount to Drax losing £13m according to the company's financial reports.
