Drax launching business to become global leader in cutting carbon emissions

Energy company, Drax Group, plans to establish a new independent business which will focus on becoming the global leader in delivering large-scale carbon removals.

Working with coalition partners, the new business will combines Drax’s expertise in Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) with the latest climate science.

It will have a goal to remove at least six metric tons of CO₂ from the atmosphere annually.

The business will be operationally separate within North Yorkshire-based Drax Group and headquartered in Houston, United States.

It will be led by Laurie Fitzmaurice, a senior energy infrastructure expert, who has nearly 30 years of experience in business development around the world, most recently for Amazon Web Services.

Drax intends to formally launch this new entity in the United States later this year.

Fitzmaurice and her team will take ownership of delivering the group’s strategy for BECCS in the US and internationally as set by the board of Drax Group.

In the UK, Drax’s plans for installing BECCS onto its power station near Selby Yorkshire and its transformation into the world’s largest carbon removals facility have recently been granted planning approval by the Government.

Delivery of this project will continue to be handled by a UK-based team within Drax Group.

Fitzmaurice said: “We have enormous potential to play a significant role in tackling climate change and improving the lives of millions of people across the world.

“By working with a coalition of partners, together we can accelerate the rate at which we are able to scale carbon removals and I encourage stakeholders who are keen to deliver on this ambition to work with us.”

Drax Group CEO, Will Gardiner, said: “The creation of this business brings to life years of hard work by many outstanding people across our group and marks another step in Drax’s journey to enable a zero-carbon, lower-cost energy future.

“Our recent success is grounded in providing secure, renewable energy and our future is focused on playing a critical role in tackling climate change through the generation of secure, renewable power and the large-scale removal of carbon dioxide.

“I am excited to welcome Laurie as president of our new US-headquartered carbon removals business and look forward to working with her. We have a limited window of opportunity to capitalise on our first mover advantage and I am confident that the time is right for this approach.”