Innovation the key... but it has to be viable

Mr Emery said innovations have to make a company more competitive if they are to be a force for good.

“Innovation for innovation’s sake is pointless,” he said. “Most organisations can’t afford that luxury. Innovation has to be commercially viable. If the UK is to be successful we have to turn these innovations into commercial successes.”

Mr Emery said that innovation has been key to power station operator Drax’s success.

“We have had to change our internal culture dramatically, it’s very important to the success of the business,” he said.

“In 2006 it was pretty clear we were one of the top five carbon emitters in Europe. We could see the business risks and we could see we needed to change Drax if the business was to be successful.”

Now Drax, which supplies some seven per cent of the UK’s electricity needs, is poised for a multi-million pound conversion into a mainly biomass-fired plant after the Government confirmed new subsidies for renewable power last month.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) revealed long-awaited subsidies for large-scale green power generation through so-called Renewables Obligation Certificates (ROCs).

Drax, whose coal power station in Selby, North Yorkshire, is the UK’s single-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, will forge ahead with converting three of its six units into burning organic plant-based material. It expects this to cost £650m to £700m.

It will take a decision on converting the other three at a later date, but said it could be mainly biomass-fuelled within five years.

“This is innovation. It’s not been done before” said Mr Emery. “This is a good example of where innovation is not just a technical solution, we’re making money out of it.”

The company expects to spend about £320m on converting the units, up to £200m on meeting emissions rules and another £100m on establishing a biomass supply chain. It hopes to have completed on-site investment by June 2014.

Drax will need seven to eight million tonnes of biomass annually, replacing about five million tonnes of coal.

The company has said it is “completely confident” it will be able to source the biomass.

Drax’s chief executive Dorothy Thompson believes that other coal power stations considering biomass will struggle to compete with Drax’s head start.

“We understand that a number of other owners of coal plant in the UK are looking seriously at biomass conversion or enhanced co-firing,” she said.

“But what we believe is that the technical and sourcing challenge to successfully achieve this is not insignificant. It’s not wide open because it requires a lot of work, expertise and a significant amount of investment.”

Mr Emery said the move to biomass is one of three innovations taking place at Drax. The other two are a £100m turbine upgrade and a carbon capture and storage project.

The completion of the £100m turbine upgrade is the largest steam modernisation programme in UK history.

It has taken five years to complete and will enable Drax Power Station to reduce its emissions of carbon dioxide by one million tonnes a year.

Drax has replaced the low pressure and high pressure turbines on all six units at the power station.

The new turbines, manufactured by Siemens Germany, consist of 28 separate turbine rotors weighing over 2,800 tonnes.

“The completion of this project makes our turbines amongst some of the most efficient in the world and its successful completion is due to our excellent collaborative relationship with Siemens in Newcastle and Germany,” said Mr Emery.

“As the UK’s largest coal-fired power station, we take our responsibility to cut carbon emissions seriously and this project marks a significant milestone in our efforts to do that.”

The increased overall efficiency of almost 40 per cent will improve reliability and availability in generation output.

Drax also has plans for a pioneering ‘clean’ coal power plant in Yorkshire, which would create 1,250 jobs during its construction, and another 60 jobs once operating.

The White Rose Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project aims to trap about two million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, capturing 90 per cent of the plant’s emissions.

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