Drax to power ahead with £700m biomass plans

The Selby-based business reported a 16 per cent fall in pre-tax profits in the first half, which it said was in line with expectations.

Dorothy Thompson, chief executive, said: “In the first half of 2012 we delivered good operating performance across the business and demonstrated our technical capability to convert Drax’s generating units fully to biomass.

“As a result of our excellent technical progress and the Government’s conclusions on support levels for sustainable biomass, we will now move forward with our strategy to transform Drax into a predominantly biomass-fuelled generator.

“We will do this by converting progressively three of our six generating units to biomass, in the full confidence that we have both proven the technical solutions to deliver reliable and flexible generation at attractive rates of efficiency and output, and are making good progress with our biomass sourcing.

“This transformation will secure a significant number of jobs, not just at Drax but also in the sustainable biomass supply chain.”