Energy company Drax (
www.drax.com) has abandoned a £1 billion project — known as White Rose — to introduce carbon capture and storage (CCS) at its plant in North Yorkshire, which is the biggest coal-fired power station in the UK.
The company says it is halting further investment because of the Government’s decision to reduce subsidies for renewable energy, adding that — due to a lack of profits — it had to put the business and shareholders first.
Drax chief executive Dorothy Thompson said it was a very sad decision, particularly as they thought the White Rose project still had a lot of potential.
She said that when the Government removed a tax exemption for renewable power that is sold to industrial companies, Drax — the largest generator of renewable power in the UK — suddenly lost a stream of income. “The day it was announced, our share price dropped by a third, and that simply reduces the amount of cash we have available for future investments.”
Drax said that the White Rose CCS project had the potential to trap up to 90% of carbon emissions from a new coal-fired power station next to the company’s existing power plant in Yorkshire.
It said it was fully committed to the completion of the feasibility study in the next six to 12 months; and even though Drax will not be committing any further investment, it will make its site and the power plant’s infrastructure available for the project to be built.
Its other partners in the consortium — called Capture Power Ltd — are energy technology firm Alstom and industrial gas supplier BOC.
Capture Power said it was still committed to delivering the CCS project, and a final investment decision would depend on the outcome of an engineering and design study. Capture Power is one of two bidders competing for £1 billion of Government money to build Europe’s first carbon capture plant on a commercially operating power station.