Drax the power generator that owns Europe’s biggest coal-fired power station has published a biomass strategy document that includes a plan to invests £2 billion in three new biomass-fired power plants in a joint venture with Siemens.
The power stations will be sited at the ports of Immingham in Lincolnshire and Hull in Yorkshire and possibly at Drax’s existing site near Selby. Together, they will produce 900 MW.
Work is expected to start on the first of the three plants in 2010, scheduled to come on stream in 2014. When completed they are likely to provide 15 per cent of the UK’s renewable energy and around 10 per cent of total UK capacity.
Drax already uses biomass such as straw, forestry residue, sunflower seed and peanut husks in a 10 % mix with its coal fuel. Much of its biomass has to be shipped from abroad.
To pay for the new power stations, Drax said it would cut its dividend payout from 2010 onwards.
