Proactive Investors - Drax Group (LON:DRX)’s North Yorkshire biomass site produced four times more carbon last year than the UK’s last remaining coal power station, a report has found.
Despite being classed as carbon-neutral, the use of biomass at the power plant led to 11.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide being emitted, or 3% of the UK’s total, think tank Ember found in a report.
This was four times more than the UK’s last coal power station Ratcliffe on Soar, and higher than the next four most polluting plants combined.
The figures come after Drax claimed over £0.5 billion in clean-energy subsidies last year to support power generation at the site, which uses wood chips imported from America.
In total, Drax has claimed nearly £7 billion in such subsidies, which are funded through energy bills, since 2012.
“Supporting biomass with subsidies is a costly mistake,” Ember analyst Frankie Mayo commented, “burning wood pellets can be as bad for the environment as coal”.
The group added there was a “mounting body of evidence” against thought that biomass power reduced carbon emissions, with this relying on trees used for fuel being replanted.
“Unfortunately, the assumed carbon savings from biomass is far from guaranteed,” Ember added.
A Drax spokesperson disputed Ember’s report, arguing it was “flawed” and ignored the firm’s “widely accepted and internationally recognised approach to carbon accounting”.
Drax is awaiting a government decision on further subsidies to support its biomass power generation from 2027 and also has plans to fit carbon capture technology at the site.
Known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS), Drax has said the plant would be converted into the world’s first “carbon negative” power station.
“The technology that underpins BECCS is proven, and it is the only credible large-scale way of generating secure renewable power and delivering carbon removals,” the spokesperson added.