C’est à ce prix que vous mangez du sucre en Europe
For years, sceptics have been saying that sending vast subsidies to Drax power station is a mistake. Drax, built on a coal mine to burn coal to generate electricity, was encouraged to convert to burning wood when the black stuff fell out of fashion.
The burning of such biomass was badged as “renewable,” since if you cut a tree down, it grows back; and if you cut a forest down, it too grows back. Drax declared that it would only use twigs or useless bits of chaff, bark etc to stuff its infernal maw – but no-one seriously believed that you could feed the beast on such bits and bobs.
When I wrote Denierland, Drax’s own website quantified its consumption as 130,000 tonnes of wood pellets per week, or 6.76 million tonnes per year. With what I thought was generous terms, I worked out that 583 km2 of forest would need to be clearcut to supply that quantity of pellets. Allowing the life of Drax to be a further 25 years, and that consumption of biomass ceased after that time, I also worked out that a further 1800 km2 of forest would need to be planted (on land with zero existing biomass) to offset the carbon dioxide emissions from the transatlantic pellet trade.
This is of course stupidity on stilts. Importing wood to burn it is obscene. And even if you could make the carbon dioxide sums balance, you still have the wholesale destruction of habitat to answer. If you planted a tree with the intention of later burning it, that would be one thing. But thirty years ago (a very optimistic cropping cycle for fast-growing pines in the US south) no-one was planting trees and writing “for Mr. Drax in 2022” on them.
The hunger of the beast, at nearly 600 km2 per year, meant that it was bound to start biting out chunks of high-quality forest, not mere plantation. The cynic suspected that the supply chain would be sufficiently opaque that happy Mr. Drax could continue to blather on about thinnings and twigs out of one side of his mouth while at the same time devouring forests with the other half, at a scale which, if widely known about, would mean the abrupt end of his feast.
Of course, something else that is well known in sceptical circles but not, it seems, in the wider public, is that every household is sending £30 a year to Mr. Drax to subsidize his voracious appetite for wood. [Based on 2019 figures; I have not looked at more recent annual reports. Paul Homewood at Notalot summed Drax’s 2021 subsidies to £893,000,000, about a hundred mill more than when I looked.] That is in addition to the value of electricity sold, which if this year is anything to go on, will be a bumper year for holders of Drax shares – from memory 3 of the 4 converted units at Drax are on Renewables Obligation Certificates, such that they obtain the subsidies irrespective of the cost of electricity [it depends on the value assigned to a ROC in each year].
If you took those three tenners from each of the UK’s 28 million households and spread them out on the land, they would cover 70 hectares.
Of course, we are stuck with stupid schemes whose terms were struck by stupid people, and we cannot simply turn Drax off, because we are desperate for solid power. Such is the mad world of the energy policy of the UK.
Mad also was the idea of appointing Drax’s head of Sustainability and Policy to the UK’s Climate Change Committee, the artist formerly known as the Committee on Climate Change, which advises the UK government on climate policy, including the policy of burning biomass to generate electricity.
Rebecca Heaton is Head of Sustainability and Policy at Drax Group and has responsibility for the sustainability of the global forest supply chains used to deliver sustainable biomass to its power station.
Heaton was appointed in 2017 and served for four years, before leaving last year:
Dr Becky Heaton is to step down from her role on the Climate Change Committee (CCC) after more than four years of service.
The announcement comes ahead of Dr Heaton’s appointment as Director of Sustainability at the renewable energy company, Ovo, later this summer*.
I am absolutely sure that nothing improper took place and that Heaton’s role on the committee was beyond reproach. However, it was certainly not a good look. And it was arguably stupid. When the CCC produced a report on biomass in 2018, Heaton naturally and respectably recused herself owing to her connection to The Beast of Selby. However, this meant that the one committee member with any knowledge of the subject was excluded from contributing to the report. What this means to me is that, yes, do appoint someone with expertise in biomass, but no, do not appoint someone with a tie to a biomass company that is strongly dependent on government policy for its success.
The CCC’s report noted that:
Using low-grade wood is controversial. What about clearcutting forests? (Note, in passing whose data the CCC are referencing? Yes, The Beast’s.)
As noted by Mark, BBC’s Panorama has just noticed the incongruity of paying a company billions of quid to destroy forests in the name of sustainability.
The Panorama investigation is welcome. I respect them for not simply sweeping the uncomfortable questions about Drax under the carpet. The programme airs tonight at 8, if anyone is in range of the receiving apparatus. I’ll be watching with interest.
To paraphrase Voltaire for another century, Is this the price we have to pay to keep the lights on in Europe?
Notes and References
* Heaton stayed as Director of Sustainability at Ovo for long enough to be shown her desk, before becoming Director of Environmental Sustainability at Lloyds Bank.
As Director of Environmental Sustainability, Rebecca will oversee the delivery of Lloyds Banking Group’s plan to achieve net zero.
Lloyds
Lloyds is a member of Mark Carney’s GFANZ. According to reports, some members of GFANZ are getting cold feet. Will Lloyds stick around? There are obvious risks to taking investment decisions with green sunglasses and blinkers on.
The featured image is not the responsibility of Mr. Drax. It is a generic image.
Climate Scepticism 
A slight aside from Drax’s trees, the SNP made a statement they would be planting x million trees to replace the trees cut down for wind farms. Oh yes this sounds wonderfully green and conscientious but the reality can be seen quite clearly. Just north of Dunblane by the A9 there is a example of a well kept private plantation and a further 8 miles up the road is a fine example of part of the x million, the trees are barely visible choked by weeds and grass, there are some deciduous sections with thistles sticking out the tree tubes and the odd young tree ! Why is it so easy to find fault in everything they do ?
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James S- “Why is it so easy to find fault in everything they do?”
Er, because they do so much that is riddled with fault! JIT often comments that the whole tree-planting thing is nonsense on stilts if you just pay people to plant trees, but not to think about where you would plant them for best results, and certainly if you don’t pay them by results (i.e. how many are healthy and growing strongly in, say, 10 years time). I suspect the SNP are among the worst offenders, but certainly politicians of all stripes like nothing better than throwing taxpayers’ money at something, posing for a photo and a quick soundbite for the press, then moving on and forgetting all about it. Politicians and long-term are not words that make comfortable bed-fellows.
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So, Drax’s head of Sustainability and Policy was appointed to the UK’s Climate Change Committee, where she sat alongside its Chairman, a man with personal interests in Veolia, a company which (according to its own website) is “committed to focusing on carbon reduction through energy efficiency and renewable power, preserving natural resources, protecting biodiversity, combating climate change and raising environmental awareness.” So there are two members of the committee with vested interests straight away, and yet it is always described as being “independent”.
My Concise OED offers up various definitions of “independent”, but I struggle to apply any of them to a committee that has members on it who definitely have a dog in the fight. I accept that no rules have been broken, and that everything is declared and transparent, but I still think that the deference paid to a committee with such obvious conflicts of interest is beyond ridiculous.
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BY the way, I have always thought it makes a lot more sense (and is a lot greener) to burn long dead trees (coal) than it does to chop down live ones to burn.
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Well, the programme contained nothing surprising, but it did lay out the evidence clearly enough. Hopefully the problems of biomass have been brought to a wider audience.
The new head of sustainability at Drax, Dr. Heaton’s replacement there, was utterly useless, an automaton like a speak your weight machine. Everyone knows that Drax burns trees. But they have to maintain the facade that their business model is built on burning sawdust and chaff. It is though obvious to anyone that there just isn’t enough sawdust and rotten twigs.
The areas they are clearcutting would be afforded the highest level of protection in the UK – in fact we don’t have any areas remotely like that, having cleared it all hundreds of years ago. Panorama hardly glanced at biodiversity, but that is the key to me. I could care less about the CO2 emissions.
Biomass is a non-starter. Unfortunately it has started, and it looks as if reverting Drax to burning coal would be politically impossible. And unfortunately if we stop feeding the beast, our lights will go out.
Embarrassingly stupid energy policy has led us into a fine mess.
==
In “related” posts below the main text, you’ll see a story by Paul Matthews about a 2018 Channel 4 documentary about Drax.
==
In a headline, Desmog described Heaton’s appointment to the CCC as a glaring conflict of interest (actually quoting someone from an energy thinktank:
https://www.desmog.com/2021/07/02/drax-climate-change-committee-rebecca-heaton/
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I am no fan of DeSmogBlog, but in fairness, I do like that article.
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“Drax chief’s pay packet jumped almost 70% to £5.4m in 2022
Campaigners say Will Gardiner’s pay rise comes from subsidies on energy bills paid for by public and accuse firm of greenwashing”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/mar/17/drax-chief-will-gardiner-pay-2022
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Thanks Mark. The madness never ends. Even now that there is absolutely no excuse for anyone to think that it is a good idea to send hundreds of millions of quid out of normal folks’ pockets to the Beast of Selby, we carry on doing it.
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“Net zero tsar and senior Tories among those urging biomass subsidies rethink
Exclusive: Jacob Rees-Mogg and Chris Grayling express concern at system under which Drax made £617m in 2022”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/28/net-zero-tsar-senior-tories-biomass-subsidies-rethink
Better late than never, I suppose. Now we just need reality to dawn regarding the rest of the madness.
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“Power giant Drax told by own advisers to stop calling biomass ‘carbon neutral’
Drax burns woody biomass pellets shipped from overseas to create electricity in the UK on the basis it could be greener than burning coal, qualifying it for government subsidies. But its scientists have raised questions about whether the impact of biomass really is neutral.”
https://news.sky.com/story/power-giant-drax-told-by-own-advisers-to-stop-calling-biomass-carbon-neutral-12866031
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“Drax-owned wood pellet plant in US broke air pollution rules again
Amite BioEnergy, which was fined $2.5m in 2021, notified Mississippi facility had breached emission limits”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/29/drax-owned-wood-pellet-plant-in-us-broke-air-pollution-rules-amite-bioenergy-mississippi-emissions-limits
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Interesting stuff to be found via Paul Homewood’s place this morning:
And:
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Thanks Mark – I intended to make a note of this story but forgot!
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/01/24/drax-biomass-power-station-greenwashing-concerns/
“Britain’s biggest renewable power station faces further claim of greenwashing”
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“Drax: UK power station burns wood from rare forests”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68381160
The BBC catches up with the rest of us. I like that ‘green’ in the headline is in inverted commas. Now they need to make that editorial policy when describing environmentally damaging (but allegedly CO2 reducing) projects.
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In case anyone is wondering what Mark means, the headline is “Rare forest wood burned by ‘green’ UK power station”. This morphs to “Drax: UK power station burns wood from rare forests” when you click on it.
The Beast is hungry. We know it eats whole trees from wherever it can find them. It knows we know. It doesn’t care.
It does rather cast the original decision to convert from coal in a poor light. Now we couldn’t pull the subsidies if we wanted to, because the lights would go out.
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This story from the Indy has not matured like fine wine:
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“We use low-grade wood from working forests and, essentially, if we weren’t using it, it would probably go to waste,” she says.”
That sort of comment/claim is made frequently in defence of biomass projects. Leaving aside the many reports of whole trees being used, nobody ever seems to ask what happened to this stuff beforehand.
I had some dealings with the forestry industry years ago. It is extremely efficient in its use of raw materials. Low-grade stuff goes to chipboard, MDF, etc and the rest is used to fuel the mills and processing plants.
Also wildlife and gardening programmes are forever telling us that it is good for nature to leave damaged/rotten branches etc on the ground.
Sadly Drax has the govt over a barrel, as Jit said, the more so now that the start-up date for HPC has been pushed back into the next decade.
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This is how it looked on my iPhone this morning – first spotted on the bus around 9:20am, before seeing Mark’s comment. Top story. I found it very heartening.
(My phone screen’s not that big, more’s the pity.)
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Ross Clark is on the case for the Speccie:
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-farce-of-burning-wood-pellets/
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David Turver has posted another excellent article this morning:
Drax: The Tale of Dosh and BECCS
An in depth looks at the support for tree-burning at Drax.
It’s about proposed transitional support for Drax from 2027 when the current subsidy regime ends to 2030 when biomass with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is expected to come online. Turver is not impressed. His conclusion:
He suggests that Government should ‘also entertain the heretical notion of keeping the remaining coal-fired plants running and, heaven forbid, consider converting Drax back to burning coal.’ He’s right of course – but it’s not gonna happen.
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David Turver’s comment about the need for coal plants (see above) may be heresy but No Tricks Zone cites a power plant engineer who has no doubts:
Germany’s Unstable Power Grid … Coal Plants Will Be Needed “For A Very Long Time”
https://notrickszone.com/2024/03/01/germanys-unstable-power-grid-coal-plants-will-be-needed-for-a-very-long-time/#comments
Do the same concerns apply also to the UK Grid?
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Robin,
As so often, that David Turver article should be essential reading for all politicians and policy-makers. Thanks for drawing it to our attention.
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Probably this isn’t the best place to post this link to a BBC news item, but it’s vaguely relevant, I suppose:
“Isle of Wight biomass housing estate residents angry at energy price hikes”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-68682209
“Residents at a housing estate with its own biomass heating network have said they are “angry and frustrated” at price hikes.
Bluebell Meadows and St George’s Gate in Newport, Isle of Wight, have a system which burns wood chippings to provide heat and hot water.
Monthly charges have more than doubled since last year.
The estate’s management company said it was looking at the fuel supply arrangements to try to reduce costs.
Mum-of-one Amy, 28, said she was “mortified” to see her bill go up from £38 to £100 per month.
“Like many others on the estate, one of the main reasons I purchased a new-build Barratts home was because of their unique selling point – the homes were economically efficient to run and now I can certainly say that is not true,” she said.
Ward councillor Geoff Brodie said: “The whole development was going to be the greatest thing that ever happened — renewable energy, sustainable houses – and it was going to be cheap to run.”
He said bills had been partially subsidised so far, but increases had been phased in and no-one would know the full charges until Barratts hands over the biomass system when it is complete…
…Barratt David Wilson Homes, Isle of Wight Council and Sovereign Network Group form the Pan Management Company.
A joint statement said the bill increases “reflect the handover of the biomass centre” from Barratts to the estate management company, as well as recent energy price increases and high inflation….”
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Behind a paywall, unfortunately:
https://www.energyvoice.com/renewables-energy-transition/557226/drax-hands-300m-to-shareholders/
However, the highlights, as I understand them:
Shareholders to get £300m windfall after sharp rise in taxpayers subsidies boosted its profits for first half of year to more than £500m.
Further interesting (and galling) facts regarding this company:
•UK’s biggest single emitter of carbon dioxide.
•Has received more than £6bn in subsidies.
•New scheme planned to fit carbon capture technology to the power plant, could cost bill payers more than £40bn.
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The Drax story – Drax seeks new handout despite £300m buyback – can be found HERE .
Some extracts:
I liked this:
It will be interesting to see how the Government responds: is it interested in cutting emissions (and saving money) or not?
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“Biomass power station produced four times emissions of UK coal plant, says report
Drax received £22bn in subsidies despite being UK’s largest emitter in 2023, though company rejects ‘flawed’ research”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/09/biomass-power-station-produced-four-times-emissions-of-uk-coal-plant-says-report
I generally find myself at odds with Ember, but they make some fair points here:
The Drax power station was responsible for four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant last year, despite taking more than £0.5bn in clean-energy subsidies in 2023, according to a report.
The North Yorkshire power plant, which burns wood pellets imported from North America to generate electricity, was revealed as Britain’s single largest carbon emitter in 2023 by a report from the climate thinktank Ember.
The figures show that Drax, which has received billions in subsidies since it began switching from coal to biomass in 2012, was responsible for 11.5m tonnes of CO2 last year, or nearly 3% of the UK’s total carbon emissions.
Drax produced four times more carbon dioxide than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired power station at Ratcliffe-on-Soar in Nottinghamshire, which is due to close in September. Drax also produced more emissions last year than the next four most polluting power plants in the UK combined, according to the report.
Frankie Mayo, an analyst at Ember, said: “Burning wood pellets can be as bad for the environment as coal; supporting biomass with subsidies is a costly mistake.”
The company has claimed almost £7bn from British energy bills to support its biomass generation since 2012, even though burning wood pellets for power generation releases more emissions for each unit of electricity generated than burning gas or coal, according to Ember and many scientists. In 2023, the period covered by the Ember report, it received £539m.…
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“Green groups urge Ed Miliband to scrap Drax subsidies
Open letter to Labour energy secretary from 41 groups says wood-burning biomass plants are putting forests and biodiversity at risk”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/27/subsidies-biomass-wood-burning-drax-power-station-uk
More than 40 green groups have called on Ed Miliband to scrap plans to pay billions in subsidies to the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire for it to keep burning wood pellets imported from overseas forests.
In an open letter to the energy secretary, 41 groups from across Europe and the US say they are “deeply concerned” about the UK government’s plans to foot the cost of extending the subsidy scheme, which supports the UK’s most polluting power plant from 2027 until the end of the decade.
The subsidy scheme, which has paid the FTSE 250 owners of Drax more than £7bn since 2012, also supports the Lynemouth biomass plant in Northumberland, which is owned by the billionaire investor Daniel Křetínský.
“These power stations are burning trees from some of the world’s most biodiverse forests in the southern USA, Canada and Europe, with devastating impacts on communities, wildlife and the climate. This puts at risk forests and wildlife in many of our countries,” the letter says.
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“After wood pellet reporting failures, it’s time for a proper review of Drax’s subsidies
Before biomass firm is promised a penny extra from billpayers, Ed Miliband should commission a review of its business model”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/article/2024/aug/29/wood-pellet-reporting-failures-review-drax-subsidies
A finding that you submitted dodgy data to the regulator on where your wood pellets come from sounds like very bad news if, like the biomass power generator Drax, you are the lucky recipient of £500m-plus of subsidies every year and are trying to keep the handouts flowing beyond their scheduled end date of 2027.
But shares in Drax did not collapse on Thursday. City analysts judged that the end of Ofgem’s investigation represented an excellent development for the company – “a clear positive”, said RBC, and “a positive read-across” for the chances of getting a new contract with the government, thought Jefferies.
Why? Well, Ofgem’s conclusion contained the critical words “technical in nature” to describe the reporting failures from a Drax forestry operation in Canada. The regulator also said it did not find evidence to question the sustainability of Drax’s biomass. And the bad data “would not have impacted the level of subsidy Drax received under the RO [renewable obligations] scheme”.
Thus a £25m penalty, a mere 1% of Drax’s stock market value, is almost irrelevant. The company will also have to pay for an external audit of its wood pellet supply chain to prove the accuracy of its future reporting, but that’s not an onerous condition.…
…The plant’s advantage is that biomass is a source of dispatchable generation – the energy is always there when you need it. And its location is strategically important for the grid. Yet are expensive foreign wood pellets really the best the UK can do? Replacing 4% of generating capacity would not be easy or subsidy-free but, at this point, one would like to see properly costed clean alternatives. The expense of supporting Drax’s bizarre operation looks extreme….
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Thanks Mark. It seems for once we are on the same page as our Guardian friends.
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“Why ‘the UK’s biggest carbon emitter’ receives billions in green subsidies
The Drax power plant burns 7m tonnes of biomass pellets a year and generates 4% of the UK’s electricity needs”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/sep/09/why-the-uks-biggest-carbon-emitter-receives-billions-in-green-subsidies
…The power plant was once one of the largest coal-burners in Europe, and a lightning rod for campaigners against fossil fuels in the UK’s electricity system. Today, its owners claim to be the UK’s largest renewable energy power plant – burning 7m tonnes of biomass pellets a year to generate enough electricity that meets almost 4% of the UK’s power needs.
But this power plant’s green revolution is not without its sceptics. Green groups and climate scientists insist Drax remains the largest single source of carbon emissions in the UK, and that its FTSE 250 owners should not have been allowed to claim billions of pounds in renewable energy subsidies – more than £7bn in bill-payer-backed subsidies since work began to convert it to run on biomass in 2012.
The battle between the two camps has reignited as the government prepares to decide whether to extend a subsidy scheme that pays Drax about £500m a year from its 2027 deadline until the end of the decade.…
Worth a read, and worth continuing to the end.
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Mark – thanks for the link & see what you mean about reading to the end – Partial quote –
“according to the Committee on Climate Change. Its latest paper on biomass, published in 2018, said recent research had shown that pathways with a greater than 50% chance of limiting global heating to beneath 1.5C could be met without large-scale deployment of BECCS to provide negative emissions. The catch? This would be conditional on the “rapid implementation of ambitious” steps to reduce energy demand over the near term.
“These measures include substantial improvements in energy efficiency, shifts in diet, rapid electrification and low population growth. If many of these measures can be combined together, then the use of large amounts of bioenergy without CCS may also be avoidable,” it said.
So without a step change in approach to battling the climate crisis, biomass will need to be part of the UK’s plan to reach net zero targets – but could a net zero win on paper prove to be a hollow victory for the climate?”
Wonder what “without a step change in approach to battling the climate crisis” will look like for UK at this point. OK the CCC paper is from 2018 but the article by Jillian Ambrose is dated Mon 9 Sep 2024.
I sometimes wonder how much pay these people get for cut & paste ability?
ps – ahhh – I just followed your link – clicks for money.
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Robin’s comment from the 7th update:
From the FT this morning:
UK power stations burnt wood from old forest areas, Drax emails show
Internal review acknowledges pellets ‘highly likely’ to have come from ecologically-important areas in Canada
Unfortunately it’s paywalled but it clearly confirms a well-publicised scandal. For example from a BBC report in 2022:
And this detailed report (February 2024):
Logging what’s left
How Drax’s pellet mills are sourcing logs from British Columbia’s rarest Old Growth forests
Its conclusion:
And from the Telegraph (March 2024):
Why Britain is burning North American forests to keep the lights on
Drax faces fresh scrutiny amid plans to ramp up the use of wood-fired power stations
Some extracts:
And this:
Drax profits surge 66% as new report finds company still burning rare wood
Results come the day after the BBC published a report that finds the company is still burning wood from rare forests in North America.
An extract:
As Ember has also said:
That the UK taxpayer continues to pay enormous subsidies to this business surely makes no sense.
Links:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-63089348
https://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/Drax-in-BC-report.pdf
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/01/britain-burning-north-american-forests-drax-power-station/
https://www.power-technology.com/news/drax-profits-surge-66-but-still-burning-rare-forest-wood/?cf-view
https://ember-climate.org/press-releases/the-uks-largest-single-source-of-co2-emissions-is-a-wood-burning-power-station/
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Could we keep the lights on without it? What a mess we’ve made of the grid.
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This is quite mad. We rejoice at the closure of our last coal-fired power station and yet pay vast sums to a business that emits enormous amounts of CO2 burning wood. And not any old wood but wood from ancient forests.
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Personally, I think it makes a lot more sense to burn long dead trees (in the form of coal) than to chop down old but living ones to burn as wood. Yet we demonise the former and subsidise the latter. UK energy policy is insane.
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“Drax will keep raising carbon emission levels until 2050s, study says
Analysis finds demand for wood pellets from US for North Yorkshire power plant reduces forest carbon stocks”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/nov/04/drax-will-keep-raising-carbon-emission-levels-until-2050s-study-says
Drax will keep raising the levels of carbon emissions in the atmosphere until the 2050s despite using carbon capture technology, according to scientific research.
The large power plant in North Yorkshire is a significant generator of electricity for the UK but has faced repeated criticism of its business model of burning wood pellets sourced from forests in the US and Canada.
The new study found that the intensive forest management needed to source 7m tonnes of wood pellets from forests in the US to burn as fuel every year would erode the carbon stored in the ecosystems of these pine forests for at least 25 years...
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“Burning wood for power not necessary for UK’s energy goals, analysis finds
Experts say UK should stop biomass burning as electricity sector decarbonisation by 2030 can be achieved without it”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/jan/22/burning-wood-for-power-not-necessary-for-uks-energy-goals-analysis-finds
Standard Guardian fare, but I think these are the interesting bits:
…Drax, formerly the UK’s biggest coal-fired power station, which was converted to burn wood, is the main source of the UK’s biomass electricity generation. The company has contracts to receive subsidies for burning wood until 2027, and is hoping for a renewal.
By then, Drax will have received £11bn in public subsidies, according to Greenpeace – roughly £2m a day. The decision on whether to continue the subsidies lies with Miliband.…
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It was firmly keeping the lights on today, seemingly.
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“Green campaigners fear UK to renew subsidies to Drax power station
Billions of pounds from energy bill payers to run out in 2027 but could be extended as soon as Monday”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/06/green-campaigners-fear-uk-to-renew-subsidies-to-drax-power-station
Green campaigners fear ministers are poised to award billions of pounds in fresh subsidies to Drax power station, despite strong concerns that burning trees to produce electricity is bad for the environment.
Drax burns wood to generate about 8% of the UK’s “green” power, and 4% of overall electricity. This is classed as “low-carbon” because the harvested trees are replaced by others that take up carbon from the atmosphere as they grow.
But many studies have shown that wood burning harms the environment, by destroying forests, and because of the decades-long time lag between the immediate release of carbon dioxide from burning and the growth to maturity of replacement trees.
Drax currently receives billions of pounds in subsidies from energy bill payers, at the rate of about £2m a day according to Greenpeace, but these are scheduled to run out in 2027. A government decision on whether to continue the support payments beyond the cut-off could come as soon as Monday.
Campaigners fear that ministers could allow Drax unrestricted subsidies for continuing to burn biomass, which one said would be “incredibly bad news”. A further option would be to impose strict time limits on the subsidies, or require Drax to use carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which could reduce the harm to the climate but still allow widespread destruction of trees….
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“Ed Miliband to hand taxpayer billions to wood-burning power stations”
Telegraph link.
Every decision he makes…
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“Power station’s further reporting failure exposed by BBC”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxnpzzjed1o
A UK power station that has received billions of pounds in government subsidies has failed more than once to report it burned wood from primary forests, BBC News has found.
Drax Power Station, which burns wood pellets, is required to report where it sources its wood and whether it is from natural, previously untouched forests.
The company paid a £25m penalty last year for misreporting this data following an investigation by the energy regulator Ofgem and now the BBC has discovered a further year of misreporting that has not been looked at by the regulator.
The company did not deny misreporting its sustainability data but said it is “focused on implementing the lessons learned”.
The power station, a converted coal plant in North Yorkshire, generates approximately 6% of the UK’s electricity and has received billions of pounds in subsidies from the government and bill-payers because wood-burning is classed as a source of renewable energy....
... public logging records show Drax still sources whole trees from primary forests that are felled by other companies in the province, despite stating in its own sustainability criteria that the company will “avoid damage or disturbance to high carbon forests” which “can be defined as primary forest”.
Modern industrial logging only really began in the interior of British Columbia in the 1960s, which means the areas that have been logged and replanted in recent decades are not yet mature enough for these plantations to harvested.
Nearly all the industrial logging that takes place in the interior of the province is from “woodland of native species where there is no clearly visible indication of human activities and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed”, the wording used by Ofgem to define primary forests....
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“Subsidies halved for controversial Drax power station”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyplj7dkw2o
The government has agreed a new funding arrangement with the controversial wood-burning Drax power station that it says will cut subsidies in half.
The power station, a converted coal plant in north Yorkshire, generates about 5% of the UK’s electricity and has received billions of pounds from the government and bill-payers because wood pellets are classed as a source of renewable energy.
Though there are plans to eventually capture the carbon emitted from Drax, its emissions from burning the pellets are currently unabated...
…The new agreement will run from 2027 to 2031 and will see the power station only used as a back-up to cheaper renewable sources of power.
The government says that will mean that when there’s lots of wind and solar, Drax won’t run at all.
It says the company currently receives nearly a billion pounds a year in subsidies and and predicts that figure will more than halve to £470m under the new deal.…
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Nils Pratley is one of the Guardian’s better journalists, IMO:
“Drax is the subsidy show that goes on and on”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/feb/10/drax-is-the-subsidy-show-that-goes-on-and-on
Worth a read, I think.
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Mark – I agree Nils at least seems balanced in his articles. Then you get – “energy minister Michael Shanks at least sounded embarrassed. He railed against the “unacceptably large profits” Drax has made, said past subsidy arrangements “did not deliver a good enough deal for bill payers” and vowed that that the definition of a “sustainable” wood pellet would be tightened. But the bottom line is that the government has agreed to crank the subsidy handle once again, just at a slower rate.
Why? As he didn’t quite put it, Drax has us over a barrel if we’re not prepared to use more gas to generate electricity. A renewables-heavy system needs firm, reliable power as backup. Transporting wood pellets from North America to burn in Yorkshire is deemed the solution to fill the gap. “The clear evidence is that Drax is important to delivering a secure, value for money power system in the period 2027 to 2031,” he concluded.”
Bit fed up with this bit – “Shanks blamed “the circumstances left by the previous government”, which is probably fair”
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“How Ed Miliband’s Net Zero Fantasy Is Deforesting North Carolina”
https://dailysceptic.org/2025/02/16/how-ed-milibands-net-zero-fantasy-is-deforesting-north-carolina/
…Mr Carter believes the fact that the environmental destruction happens out of sight – and therefore out of mind – has been very useful for Drax in winning British acquiescence.
“It’s a lot harder to burn your own forest than someone else’s,” he says. “People are going to be a lot more tolerant if the wood pellets just show up on a ship and you don’t see the trees being cut and don’t see the forest being lost.”
Just like buying solar panels and batteries from China, where the coal power stations providing the energy to manufacture them are conveniently out of sight, and allowing China to gain a chokehold on the UK renewables sector.…
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“Drax power plant owner lands record £1bn profits amid biomass row
It comes only weeks after government said biomass subsidies allowed Drax Group to make ‘unacceptably large profits’”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/27/drax-power-plant-owner-reports-highest-earnings-since-pandemic
The owner of the Drax power plant has reported its highest earnings ever only weeks after the government admitted that its controversial subsidies for biomass power had allowed it to make “unacceptably large profits”.
Drax Group said its adjusted earnings rose to £1.06bn last year, narrowly above its profits of £1.01bn the year before and the highest level in the company’s 35 year history.
The profits are largely built on the billion-pound subsidies given to the North Yorkshire power plant every year to support its biomass generation, which is considered a form of renewable energy despite claims from climate scientists that it may increase emissions in the short-term.
The government agreed earlier this month to extend the group’s subsidies beyond a 2027 deadline to 2031. It insisted that the plant, which supplies about 5% of the UK’s electricity, would be used only as backup for when wind and solar power was in short supply, playing a “much more limited role” in future….
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“Drax power plant to cut carbon capture investment despite record £1bn profit
Move comes after government said it would halve subsidies that allowed firm to make ‘unacceptably large profits’”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/feb/27/drax-power-plant-owner-reports-highest-earnings-since-pandemic
The owner of the Drax wood-burning power plant will slow its investment in carbon capture to reduce its emissions, despite securing an extra three years of government subsidies and earning record profits above £1bn last year.
Drax Group said it would commit less investment to fitting the technology at the North Yorkshire power plant unless the government provided clarity over the returns it could expect to make from the upgrade.
The company signalled the slowdown just weeks after the government agreed to pay extra public subsidies worth about half a billion pounds a year to help the company develop its carbon capture project after 2027, when its current subsidy regime ends.
The company lobbied for the extra support from 2027 to 2031, arguing it was necessary to keep the power plant running while it develops the scheme, which could begin operating in the 2030s.
On Thursday, however, Drax said it would “commit less development investment” to its strategic investments – including carbon removals, 24/7 renewable power, datacentres and energy storage – “until we receive greater certainty on appropriate regulatory structures and investments returns”.…
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Mark – thanks for the link. Partial other quotes –
“The owner of the Drax wood-burning power plant will slow its investment in carbon capture to reduce its emissions, despite securing an extra three years of government subsidies and earning record profits above £1bn last year.”
“On Thursday, however, Drax said it would “commit less development investment” to its strategic investments – including carbon removals, 24/7 renewable power, datacentres and energy storage – “until we receive greater certainty on appropriate regulatory structures and investments returns”.”
Money makes the Net Zero world go round it seems.
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Mark – oops, cross post.
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“MPs question value of billions in subsidies granted to Drax power plant
Spending watchdog warns £6.5bn in funding may not offer value for public money amid ongoing sustainability concerns”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/apr/25/mps-question-value-of-billions-in-subsidies-granted-to-drax-power-plant
A government spending watchdog has questioned the value of the multi-billion pound subsidies granted to the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire – and said that plans to hand over billions more may not represent value for money.
The government has provided about £22bn of public money to businesses and households that burn biomass pellets as fuel over the past three years, including £6.5bn for the owner of the Drax plant.
The power plant, which generates about 5% of the UK’s electricity, is expected receive more than £10bn in renewable energy subsidies between 2015 and the end of 2026 – despite ongoing concerns that wood pellets are not always sustainably sourced.
The Public Accounts Committee has said that biomass generators have been left to “mark their own homework” when it comes to proving that their fuel met the sustainability standards set by the subsidy scheme.
The committee added it was not convinced by the government’s plan to heap a further £2.5bn in subsidies on the Drax plant by extending its support beyond the 2026 deadline for a further five years while it invests in carbon capture technology.
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, MP and chair of the committee, said: “Billions upon billions of government support has been provided to the biomass sector over the past two decades. Rather than taking it on faith that the woody biomass burnt for energy is a sustainably sourced low-carbon alternative fuel, it is long past time a true assay was made of what taxpayers are getting for their money.”…
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“Drax needs a better policeman
Public confidence in the UK biomass industry is low – robust checks are needed to ensure every wood pellet its power plant burns is sustainable”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/apr/25/drax-needs-a-better-policeman
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Drax is also under fire for pollution around one of its pellet plants in the US, according to a post on WUWT. One of the comments from “Leon de Boer” gave some details:
“Well Drax has admitted fault and paid the following
2019 $110,000 for monitoring violations aka monitor stations not working
2020 $2.5 million for over three times the legal limit for Volatile Organic Compounds
2022 $225,000 for 50% over the legal limit for Volatile Organic Compounds
2024 Drax has agreed to pay £25m towards a voluntary redress scheme”
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MikeH,
In that case it’s a good job that Drax receive massive subsidies from the UK taxpayer, otherwise perhaps their unsustainable business would be…er… unsustainable.
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“Calls for Drax to be forced to fully disclose its biomass sourcing
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/jun/02/calls-for-drax-to-be-forced-to-fully-disclose-biomass-sourcing-renewables-subsidies-scheme
Campaigners say the publication of key KPMG report must be a condition to MPs extending subsidies schemeThe owner of the Drax wood-burning power station should be forced to disclose full details of its tree consumption, campaigners have argued, as MPs review the billions in renewables subsidies the North Yorkshire plant receives.
A delegated legislation committee will decide on Monday whether to pass the government’s plans to extend billpayer-funded subsidies to the country’s biomass power generators, of which Drax is by far the biggest.
Green campaigners said a condition of any extension should be that Drax published a key report by KPMG into its operations and sourcing. Reports by the auditor have been provided to the government and the energy regulator Ofgem but not the public.
Ofgem has said KPMG shows Drax has not breached rules on sourcing trees for burning from environmentally sustainable forests.
However, in separate incidents, Drax had been found to have supplied inaccurate data for subsidies in the past, leading to a £25m fine. Media investigations also found Drax using wood from old-growth forests in the US.
Drax is expected to receive more than £10bn in renewable energy subsidies between 2012 and 2027, the current regime period, according to the thinktank Ember.…
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It’s not often I agree with Dale Vince, but hey:
“Ancient trees are shipped to the UK, then burned – using billions in ‘green’ subsidies. Stop this madness now
The evidence against the Drax power station is damning, yet the government wants to continue its massive public funding”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/jun/21/uk-trees-burned-green-drax-power-station
How green is this? We pay billions of pounds to cut down ancient forests in the US and Canada, ship the wood across the Atlantic in diesel tankers, then burn it in a Yorkshire-based power station.
Welcome to the scandal of Drax, where Britain’s biggest polluter gets to play climate hero. The reality is that billions in public subsidies has enabled Drax to generate electricity by burning 300m trees. Now the government is trying to force through an extension that would grant Drax an estimated £1.8bn in public subsidies on top of the £11bn it has already pocketed, keeping this circus going until at least 2031.
This isn’t green energy. The mathematics alone should horrify anyone who cares about value for money or the environment. Burning wood creates 18% more CO2 emissions than coal. Even if you replant every tree Drax destroys, it takes up to a century for new growth to reabsorb the carbon released. We’re supposed to reach net zero by 2050, not 2125.
Yet through circus-trick accounting, all of Drax’s massive emissions magically disappear from Britain’s climate ledger. They’ve simply been wished away – counted as “zero”, while the company becomes our largest single contributor to climate breakdown.
Extraordinarily, this scandal unites opposition across the political spectrum. From the Greens to Reform, from the Morning Star to the Daily Telegraph, there’s rare consensus that Drax represents everything wrong with our approach to climate policy….
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Mark, thank you for posting this article which details what many people (sceptics and greens alike) have known for some years, namely that burning wood is not environmentally sustainable unless an accounting trick is employed.
However, as an electrical engineer I feel I must point out that Drax furnishes the grid with quite a lot of that “inertia” which has been in the news so much recently, especially since the Iberian grid blackout at the end of April. And it is lots of “inertia” that the grid requires as an intrinsic counter to change of frequency; large “inertia” slows down the rate of change thereby allowing grid systems and grid managers more time to take preventative action against imminent system collapse/blackout.
Thus, having got ourselves into this accounting scam, we are probably wise to continue with it, at least until such time as more generators with intrinsic “inertia” are added to the system. How about some OCGT and CCGT generators, Mr Miliband? Regards, John C.
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Which way to a sensible grid?
Well, I wouldn’t start from here, if I were you.
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Mark – makes you wonder if the ruling you mention over on the “Court Again” thread regarding “However, they did not count the greenhouse gases which would be released when those fossil fuels were eventually burned – known as “downstream” or “Scope 3” emissions.” might be applicable to Drax?
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John Cullen,
Well yes – I suspect that’s why Drax continues to be subsidised, despite the absurdity of describing it as green or of giving is subsidies. This way Miliband gets to pretend the grid will be decarbonised by 2030, while improving the chances of keeping the lights on. It’s a scam, but no doubts he hopes one that will work while blindsiding the public.
Dfhunter, I doubt that Drax would now get planning permissions, based on its downstream emissions, so it’s rather ironic that it’s labelled green and is given subsidies to that end.
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“UK power company Drax’s shares plunge amid investigation over source of ‘renewable’ fuel
Investigation by UK watchdog relates to historical statements on wood pellets for power station from January 2022 to March 2024″
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/28/drax-investigated-by-uk-watchdog-over-historical-statements-on-biomass-sourcing
…The news sent Drax shares down by 10% in early trading on Thursday….
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“Make Drax wait for its next subsidy deal. An FCA investigation is serious
Ministers should find out what the regulator says before signing away a further £1.8bn of public money”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/nils-pratley-on-finance/2025/aug/28/make-drax-wait-subsidy-deal-fca-investigation-serious
There is already a scandal of bad accounting at Drax, one could say mischievously. It’s the one that maintains that transporting wood pellets from North America to burn in North Yorkshire is a “carbon neutral” activity because replacement trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow. You don’t have to be a green lobbyist to think there’s something wrong there. As the research group Ember regularly reminds us, Drax is the UK’s biggest emitter yet qualifies for renewables subsidies…
…The fact of an investigation also raises a question for the government, which in February agreed heads of terms with Drax to keep the subsidies rolling from 2027 to 2031. Michael Shanks, an energy minister, grumbled about the “unacceptably large profits” Drax has made over the years but said, in effect, that the government was over a barrel and had to back a smaller deal in order to keep the lights on. Drax generates about 5% of the country’s electricity and, unlike solar and wind, its power is firm.
The point, though, is that the February deal has not yet been signed. Will ministers now wait until the FCA has concluded? “We will review the investigation’s findings when they become available,” said the energy security department, which doesn’t precisely answer the question. It ought to be straightforward: make ’em wait. The next deal involves £1.8bn of public money. When the sums are that large, surely you’d want to hear first what the financial regulator has to say on a basic question of governance.
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Teh Guardian?
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“Drax power plant to go on earning ‘over £1m a day’ from burning wood pellets
Analysts say Britain’s biggest power plant in line to earn £458.6m a year under new government subsidy contract”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/05/drax-power-plant-to-go-on-earning-over-1m-a-day-from-burning-wood-pellets
Britain’s biggest power plant will continue to earn more than £1m a day from burning wood pellets under a new government subsidy contract designed to halve its financial support, according to analysts.
The Drax power plant in North Yorkshire is in line to earn £458.6m a year between 2027 and 2031 after the government agreed to extend its subsidies beyond 2026, according to analysts at Ember, a climate thinktank.
The earnings are well below the £869m in subsidies handed to the Drax power plant last year for generating about 5% of the UK’s electricity from burning biomass after the government promised to curb the use of biomass in Britain’s power system.
Under the contract, Drax will be paid to run just over a quarter of the time, down sharply from almost two-thirds of time currently. But the price it will earn for each unit of electricity generated will rise.
Officials have offered the power plant a guaranteed price of £157.50 for every megawatt-hour of electricity it generates between 2027 and 2031, in today’s prices, which could be higher with inflation.
This would be higher than the current price of £142.24/MWh earned by the power plant, and double the current wholesale market price of electricity bought in advance, which is just over £78/MWh…..
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“Drax still burning 250-year-old trees sourced from forests in Canada, experts say”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/nov/09/drax-still-burning-250-year-old-trees-sourced-from-forests-in-canada-experts-say
...A new report suggests it is “highly likely” that Britain’s biggest power plant sourced some wood from ecologically valuable forests as recently as this summer. Drax, Britain’s single biggest source of carbon emissions, has received billions of pounds in subsidies from burning biomass derived largely from wood.
The report, by Stand.earth, a Canadian environmental non-profit, claims that a subsidiary of Drax Group received hundreds of truckloads of whole logs at its biomass pellet sites throughout 2024 and into 2025, which were likely to have included trees that were hundreds of years old.
The report could raise fresh questions for the owner of the North Yorkshire power plant, which has been forced in recent years to defend its sustainability claims while receiving more than £2m a day in green energy subsidies from UK bill payers….
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So it goes on. So it will go on, because without alternative firm power, we are at The Beast’s mercy.
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“RICHARD TICE: How Reform will end the Great Green Fraud that is Drax – which burns one tree EVERY SECOND and gets billions of your cash”
Tice claims that he will tear up Drax’s subsidies – I don’t quite know how he intends to do so without a decade of litigation. He is also mistaken re: why the emissions of Drax do not add to our balance sheet. However, it’s at least good to have the Beast in the news again.
Mail link.
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“UK using more wood to make electricity than ever, Drax figures show
Giant biomass plant reveals burning of wood pellets made 9% of UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/uk-using-more-wood-to-make-electricity-than-ever-drax-figures-show
Britain’s reliance on burning wood to generate electricity has reached record highs, even as the government moves to curb the controversial use of biomass power.
The latest figures supplied by the owner of the huge Drax biomass plant in North Yorkshire have revealed that power generated from burning biomass wood pellets provided 9% of the UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share.
Weeks later, biomass provided almost a fifth (17%) of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low.
Britain’s record reliance on biomass generation has reached new heights as the government set out its plans to dramatically reduce the controversial energy source under a new subsidy agreement with the FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant.
Under the deal, Drax will continue to earn more than £1m a day from energy bills in exchange for burning wood pellets at its power plant....
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Does history show that the Guardian was formerly squarely behind Mr. Drax?
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Well, this article by Fiona Harvey from 2011 in the Guardian seems pretty positive:
“Drax coal power station ‘could be transformed to produce biomass fuel’
This article is more than 14 years old
UK’s largest coal power station could become top renewable energy source if subsidies are increased, Drax chief says”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/aug/02/drax-power-station-biomass
The UK’s largest coal-fired power station could be turned into one of its biggest sources of renewable energy – if subsidies are increased.
Drax generated about 6% of the UK’s total renewable power in the first half of this year, through burning straw and other biomass at its Yorkshire power station. This was achieved despite burning a much lower proportion of biomass than the plant could sustain if run under optimal conditions.
Dorothy Thompson, chief executive of Drax, said the power station could be transformed to produce more renewable energy than fossil fuel power, using biomass from straw, waste wood and other sources instead of coal.
Biomass is a relatively green fuel because the materials from which it is made have absorbed carbon dioxide from the air as they grow.
With higher levels of biomass burning, Drax and other coal-fired power stations could have a lower carbon footprint than gas-fired power stations, according to the company. The government is promoting gas as the “greener” alternative to coal as ministers struggle with the need to address the potential for power shortages at the same time as cutting carbon dioxide emissions....
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Mark; those Guardian comments are interesting because there’s the usual misdirection but – a big but – this time it is spun against biomass. The key figures would be how many tons of wood chips have been burnt, not the share of electricity output. In reality the plant’s output is probably pretty constant but, if demand is relatively low, its share will be higher.
The problem is, of course, that Drax has the grid over a barrel. Such a big chunk of dispatchable power and the support it provides for frequency, etc, has to be utilised.
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“Drax unveils plan for data centre at power station”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cd0k48n1999o
An energy company has said its Yorkshire site will get a new data centre to help it “contribute to the growth of AI”.
Drax announced plans to expand its power station near Selby with a new 100MW data centre, which could be operational by 2027.
A spokesperson said the centre would be part of Drax’s plans to allocate up to £2bn towards investment in flexible and renewable energy.They added that further details were yet to be finalised and no planning application had been submitted.…
….The news came as Drax gave a trading update saying it expected earnings to be at the “top end” of market forecasts after a “strong” performance this year….
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Breaking news from Mark Hodgson – Drax has money to burn.
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“‘Everything is worse since Drax came here’: US residents say wood-pellet plant harming their town
Residents of Gloster, Mississippi, are suing plant that exports wood pellets to UK and Europe. Company says it is reducing emissions”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/17/mississippi-wood-pellet-industry-energy
…Drax, one of the world’s biggest players in the booming biomass industry, has turned the UK’s largest coal power station, a mile-wide complex in rural Yorkshire, into what is essentially an immense wood stove fueled with Mississippi and Louisiana pine. The company, whose Yorkshire plant is among the UK’s largest single carbon emitters, has faced scrutiny and lawsuits in the UK for pollution and workplace safety violations.
Its operations in the US are also beginning to draw legal challenges. “This case is about holding a multi-billion-dollar foreign corporation accountable for poisoning a small Mississippi community,” said Letitia Johnson, an attorney representing the group, in a statement.
When the Gloster plant opened, many in the low-income, majority-Black town of 850 people were optimistic that it would revitalize the local economy. But some residents say it has brought little more than noise, dust and toxic air….
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It should never have been allowed, and should never have been subsidised. This is the poster monster for destroying the planet in the name of climate change.
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