YP Letters: Be assured, our Drax power plant really is green

I WOULD like to reassure
your readers that the biomass used at Drax to produce enough renewable power for four
million households, does not come from deforestation in
 the US and Canada, as
stated by Judy Goodwin 
(The Yorkshire Post, October
25).

Claire Perry: Greener world presents new opportunities for Yorkshire

The forests we source our biomass from are sustainable, working forests which grow back and stay as forests.

We never cause deforestation or forest decline. In fact, the forests in the US South where we source the majority of our biomass are huge – they’re three times the size of the UK and they’re growing.

All our data is independently audited and signed off by Ofgem as validation that our sourcing is sustainable.

Since we converted two-thirds of the power station to use biomass instead of coal, we have become the biggest decarbonisation project in Europe, delivering carbon savings of more than 80 per cent compared to when we used coal.

We will also be starting a Bioenergy Carbon Capture and Storage pilot project soon – technology which is critical to combat climate change. If successful, it could help to make the power we produce carbon negative.