The government has proposed plans to offer the Drax power plant extra subsidies to burn trees for electricity, provoking a backlash from climate groups and green Tory MPs.
Ministers have begun consulting on plans for bill payers to foot the cost of supporting Drax until the end of the decade once its existing subsidy scheme, which pays on average more than £500m a year, ends in 2027.
The plans were revealed days after the government gave Drax permission to fit carbon capture technology to the North Yorkshire biomass plant, in a project that could cost bill payers more than £40bn.
Drax is expected to receive subsidies for the controversial new project – known as bioenergy with carbon capture, or Beccs – once it begins operations in 2030. However, the company has told ministers it would need a bridging subsidy to support the power plant after its current subsidies run out and before the Beccs project is up and running.
The Green MP, Caroline Lucas, said it was “utterly outrageous” that the government was considering extending subsidies for Drax, which she described as “the UK’s single biggest source of carbon emissions”.
“Burning wood for electricity is driving both the climate crisis and deforestation, and these subsidies are a huge cost to the taxpayer,” she said. “Rather than propping up Drax, this money would be better spent on rolling out cheap, clean renewables and a nationwide energy-efficiency programme, to bring down bills and deliver energy security for the long term.”
The government’s new proposals defy its own climate advisers at the Committee on Climate Change, which has warned ministers against extending subsidies beyond 2027 for biomass plants that do not use carbon capture.
The project has angered green groups who have campaigned against burning imported wood pellets and dispute claims by Drax that the practice is “carbon neutral”. Campaigners, scientists and MPs have also opposed the company’s claims that using carbon capture would make the Drax plant “carbon negative”.
Doug Parr, the policy director at Greenpeace UK, said: “Households have been forced to prop up Drax’s destructive activity to the tune of over £600m a year in subsidies for too long and shouldn’t be expected to pay a penny more, especially when the cost of living is still sky-high.”
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Sir Peter Bottomley, the Conservative MP for Worthing West, told the Telegraph this week there should be “no further subsidies for burning trees in our power stations beyond the current 2027 contracts” and that the government should instead aim to increase tree cover and renewable energy generation.
Will Gardiner, the chief executive of the Drax Group, said the extra support was necessary so that the power plant could “continue to play an important role in the UK’s energy security” while investing in carbon capture to help the UK meet its climate targets.
A government spokesperson said it was focused on protecting people’s bills and that any potential support would be subject to a rigorous value for money assessment.
