Ruling reveals Drax project was eligible for investment

A KEY project for Yorkshire power station operator Drax, which the Government backed out of supporting, was eligible for investment, the High Court has ruled.

Government changed its mind over funding for the conversion of one of the Yorkshire power station operator’s generating units from coal to sustainable biomass earlier this year, which resulted in Drax launching a legal challenge.
 
In a statement today, Drax said the court has made a declaration that the second unit conversion was indeed eligible for an Investment Contract and now the court has ordered that the decision of the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) to deem the second unit conversion ineligible must be quashed and the matter remitted to DECC for reconsideration.  DECC has been granted leave to appeal. 
 
Any award of an Investment Contract for the second unit conversion would be subject to EU State Aid clearance.
 
Drax announced last week that it has won €300m (£238m) of European Union funding to build a power plant for a major carbon storage project. The carbon dioxide emissions from the plant, which will be built on land next to Drax’s existing power station near Selby, will be trapped and buried in the North Sea.