Backing for Drax’s biomass plants

One of the plants will be built on Drax’s site at Selby, where it owns a 4,000-MW coal plant, Europe’s fourth largest carbon emitter in 2010. The other will be located at South Killingholme near Immingham in North-East Lincolnshire.

The firm said, however, that its final decision to build the new biomass plants, which will produce electricity for over 500,000 homes, will hinge on new state support levels for biomass, on which the Government will shortly open a consultation.

Earlier this week chief executive Dorothy Thompson, above, led a team of engineers to oversee the shipment of the last of 28 turbine rotors from the Siemens factory in Mulheim an der Ruhr.

It will be installed at Drax next year to complete Britain’s largest steam turbine modernisation programme.