Drax underlines ?735m UK GDP contribution as part of push for …
Drax Power Station contributes £735 million to UK GDP, latest analysis has revealed.
Supporting some 7,130 jobs, as well as thousands overseas due to its transatlantic supply chain, almost half of the benefit is felt in the Yorkshire and Humber.
The economic impact statistics have been released as it builds a case for government support for its carbon capture and storage ambition, with the spotlight of the Selby and Ainsty by-election being reflected onto the policy push of the constituency’s industrial giant. It employs more than 900 people in the constituency that goes to the polls on Thursday, with a further 290 jobs supported there.
Richard Gwilliam, UK BECCS programme director at Drax Group, said: “This research underscores the critical role that Drax Power Station plays regionally and nationally. In Yorkshire and the Humber, our power station has created thousands of jobs and contributed hundreds of millions of pounds to the area’s GDP while helping maintain energy security.
“We have been generating power at our North Yorkshire site for nearly 50 years and we hope to do so long into the future through the development of our bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plans.”
Richard Gwilliam, UK BECCS programme director at Drax Groupm and chair of the Humber Energy Board. (Image: Richard Gwilliam)
A £2 billion proposal would see the largest dispatchable renewable power station in the UK act as the western anchor point for a pan-Humber dual pipeline, taking away captured carbon and providing hydrogen for fuel switching.
The company has the ambition to build two BECCS units by 2030[2] which could remove eight million tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere per year.
Drax and the wider Zero Carbon Humber proposal missed out on forerunner funding[3] as part of the Track One cluster sequencing programme delivered by government in March, with discussions ongoing as Track Two is accelerated. It wants to see further momentum[4].
The research was conducted by leading consultancy, Oxford Economics, using data from 2021. Across Yorkshire and the Humber, the combined impact of Drax Power Station was £358 million with 2,580 jobs supported. Its reach stretches to the ports of Immingham and Hull, where dedicated biomass reception facilities have been built to welcome bulk vessels on the Humber. They feed four units at the power station, capable of supplying enough power for the equivalent of five million homes.
March this year saw almost 50 years of coal generation come to a close, having generated 11 per cent of the UK’s renewable electricity between October 2021 and 2022.
James Bedford, senior economist at Oxford Economics, said: “Our research demonstrates the significant contribution that Drax Power Station makes to the UK economy and Yorkshire and the Humber.
“Much of this was within the constituency of Selby and Ainsty, where it supported a £278 million contribution to GDP, equivalent to 12 per cent of the local economy.”
The team describes BECCS is the only technology that can deliver reliable, secure and renewable power while permanently removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
References
- ^ CBI sets out green growth acceleration need with Humber at the heart (www.business-live.co.uk)
- ^ two BECCS units by 2030 (www.business-live.co.uk)
- ^ missed out on forerunner funding (www.business-live.co.uk)
- ^ wants to see further momentum (www.business-live.co.uk)