Look at new ways of doing things, Drax urges firms

Drax, Britain’s biggest power station, is sponsoring the Innovation of the Year award, targeted at companies that can demonstrate innovation in their approach to growth and development.

Asked why Drax is keen to support new ideas in the region, production director Peter Emery said: “If you look at our business – electricity generation and supply – the landscape will be unrecognisable in 30 years’ time. It will take a lot of innovation.”

He explained that Drax is sponsoring the prize as it wants to promote companies that recognise the importance of new ways of doing things.

Mr Emery said the big issue that Government and industry is wrestling with at the moment is where we need to be in 30 to 40 years’ time in terms of energy consumption, carbon emissions and green fuels.

“Our work recently has been on driving down carbon emissions quickly and also driving our biomass business,” he said.

Drax’s vision to transform itself into one of the largest renewable plants in the world moves into a critical phase in the coming months as the Government decides how much backing to give to biomass.

Drax, working with National Grid and Alstom, has submitted a funding bid to develop a carbon capture and storage project at its site near Selby. Drax has so far invested £100m to burn organic plant-based materials alongside coal at its power generator near Selby, but is holding back on more investment as it waits for ministers to announce details of their review of subsidies for renewables.

“We have got good building blocks,” said Mr Emery. “One of the challenges is to work with Government.

“We can innovate in many different ways. We are dealing with Government to influence the regulatory regime.”

One area of innovation for Drax is finding ways to improve the cost structure of the business and the reliability of the plant.

“2010 represented our most reliable performance,” said Mr Emery. “Plant availability was in excess of 92 per cent.

“That is the best this site has ever developed.”

Drax’s high profile chief executive Dorothy Thompson believes that biomass has significant potential to deliver an attractive renewable electricity to meet the Government’s ambitious targets for 2020 and beyond.

“It’s low carbon, low cost and low risk,” she said.

The Government has set out plans for 15 per cent of energy to come from renewable sources by 2020.

It is expected to reveal outline banding proposals in July.

These will go out to consultation ahead of a final decision from ministers in December.

Ms Thompson said the case for biomass is “compelling”, particularly at facilities like Drax, which were built for coal-fired electricity generation.

“It’s a very good, complementary technology to most of the other renewable technologies under consideration,” she said.

Biomass can come from agricultural and forestry residues, energy crops and recovered materials. It is more expensive than gas or coal.

But it is very abundant and sustainably so, said Ms Thompson, who expects the cost of biomass to fall “as it becomes a commodity rather than a bespoke supply arrangement”.

The closing date for entries to the Yorkshire Post’s sixth annual Excellence in Business Awards is June 17.

Categories cover a wide range of areas including innovation, community and export.

To enter visit www.yorkshirepost.co.uk