Drax close to coal-free ambition
Drax Power Station has taken a step closer to achieving its coal-free ambitions by taking its fourth coal-fired power generating unit offline as part of a planned outage programme as it prepares to convert it to run on sustainable biomass. Once the upgrade is complete, two thirds of the power station's capacity will produce renewable power.
Drax has already invested around £700m in upgrading half the power station and associated supply chain infrastructure to use sustainable biomass instead of coal one of Europe’s largest decarbonisation projects.
The conversion of the fourth unit is expected to be complete over the summer, returning to service in the second half of 2018.
Andy Koss, chief executive, said: “Switching the fourth unit from coal to biomass is another milestone in the transformation of the power station.”