UK’s largest power station welcomes US Ambassador

US Ambassador Robert Wood Johnson visited Drax Power Station on Thursday to to learn more about the UK’s largest power station and its contribution to the UK economy.

Mr Johnson, the Ambassador of the United States of America to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, had a tour of the North Yorkshire power station and heard about how Drax upgraded two thirds of its generating units to use sustainable biomass instead of coal, to become the biggest decarbonisation project in Europe.

Around 60% of the biomass used by Drax to produce enough renewable electricity for four million households, comes from the sustainable working forests of the US South – making it the biggest importer of US agricultural products.

Drax also operates three pellet plants in the US South, which produce biomass for the power station.

Mr Johnson met with Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner and Drax Power CEO Andy Koss to hear about the transformation of the power station and their plans for the future.

He heard about their plans for a Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage pilot project, due to get underway this autumn, which could enable the power produced at Drax to become carbon negative.

They also outlined proposals to repower the two remaining coal units to use gas and develop up to 200MW of battery storage, as well as the proposed £702m acquisition of some of Scottish Power’s renewable power generation assets.

Mr Johnson said: “Being here at Drax has been fascinating – the scale of the place is incredible, and the innovative projects and new technology being trialled here are very exciting.

“Drax makes a really important contribution to the US economy – I am pleased to be here to mark the important investment they make.”

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO, added: “We are delighted to welcome the Ambassador to Drax Power Station to celebrate the successful transatlantic relationship between Drax and the US, which plays a vital role in enabling us to source the biomass needed to produce enough flexible, renewable power for millions of homes and businesses in the UK.

“We play a valuable role in the communities where we operate in the US, creating jobs and breathing new life into areas previously affected by industrial decline. Since the acquisition of a third pellet mill we now employ almost 250 people over there, with plans to grow our self-supply of biomass so we’re producing up to 30% of the pellets used at the power station.”

Andy Koss, Drax Power CEO, said: “One of the biggest challenges we had when we converted two thirds of the power station to use biomass instead of coal, was in creating a completely new global supply chain for biomass.

“We invested around £700m in new infrastructure both here at the power station, but also in the pellet mills we own and the port facilities we use in the US – all of that has been vital to the success of the transformation of the business. We’re now the UK’s biggest renewable power producer, generating around 15% of the country’s renewable electricity.”