Burning Wood Pellets at Drax Not Sustainable
Importing wood pellets from America and burning them at Drax Power Station is not sustainable, admits Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.
He made the remarks in a private meeting with MPs last week, according to a report by The Guardian’s Environment Editor Damian Carrington.
Carbon Accounting vs Reality at Drax
In the UK’s carbon accounting, burning biomass at Drax is regarded as carbon neutral. Drax Power Station has received subsidies of £5.6 billion to carry out this practice.
In reality, Drax does emit greenhouse gases – 19.4 million tonnes of CO2e in 2020, according to Client Earth. Burning wood pellets produces more CO2 than coal, but forests can re-absorb CO2 if they grow back, and emissions from any deforestation are counted where it occurs not where the wood is burned.
One problem with this is that trees take decades to grow. Another is that most of the wood burned at Drax comes from America, which implies emissions in transporting it; and it is not clear that the forestry practices there are sustainable.
This Isn’t Working
Kwarteng was quoted as follows:
‘I can well see a point where we just draw the line and say: this isn’t working, this doesn’t help carbon emission reduction, that’s it – we should end it. All I’m saying is that we haven’t quite reached that point yet.
kwasi kwarteng
There’s no point getting it from Louisiana – that isn’t sustainable…transporting these wood pellets half way across the world – that doesn’t make any sense at all to me.’
One MP told Kwarteng:
‘It can take 100 years to grow a tree but 100 seconds to combust it. So unless we actually have a measure of how much CO2 is being released in the same period of time as is being sequestered by new growth, it seems to me ludicrous to say that this is carbon neutral.’
mp at the meeting with kwasi kwarteng
Carbon Capture and Storage
Drax is hoping to add Carbon Capture and Storage to its plant, and the UK’s Net Zero strategy relies on this for “negative emissions”.
On 11th August, the government launched a consultation on Biomass with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS).
Implications for Net Zero in York & North Yorkshire
The York & North Yorkshire region aims to be Net Zero by 2038.
It is relying on “negative emissions” from a future Drax BECCS plant for 20% of its target – see page 16 of the Emissions Reduction Pathways document. With that contribution, the Max Ambition pathway reaches Net Zero by 2034, and the other pathways by 2038.
Emissions Reduction Pathways says:
‘Drax is currently planning to implement CCS before 2030, retrofitting two of its four bioenergy turbines by this point. However there is significant uncertainty over the timeframes as there is currently no firm policy and funding support for the CCS infrastructure. Therefore, delays to these plans would jeopardize the region’s net-zero plans and timeframes.’
emissions reduction pathways
If reality replaces the fantasy carbon accounting at Drax, it puts a big hole in York & North Yorkshire’s Net Zero plans.
Max Ambition already requires a 48% reduction in private car use by 2030 and a 9-fold increase in cycling. Without “negative emissions” from Drax, changes in other sectors will need to be even more dramatic.