Renewable power pioneer, Drax Group, recently showcased a gold-liveried Class 66 locomotive operated by GB Railfreight, along with a matching golden rail wagon, by crossing Yorkshire’s iconic Ribblehead Viaduct.
Drax Power Station provides 11% of the UK’s renewable power, providing a secure, reliable and flexible source of renewable energy to support more intermittent renewables, such as wind and solar
This special journey marks the 50th anniversary of Drax power station near Selby, in North Yorkshire.
This site provides the most renewable power of any single location in the UK – some 14 terawatt-hours (TWh) or enough electricity to power the equivalent of five million homes. The use of biomass pellets reduces carbon emissions by 80% compared to coal.
The special train hauled 25 biomass wagons, including the first one with its matching golden wrap, across the famous Victorian viaduct on the scenic Settle-Carlisle line towards Tyne Dock.
There, they loaded the sustainable biomass pellets, which the power station uses to generate reliable, renewable electricity.
When Drax opened, it was the UK’s largest coal-fired power station, and trainloads of coal supplied it from the region’s mines.
Today, the plant uses sustainable biomass, and the company’s rail freight partners transport the compressed wood pellets from ports across Northern England to Drax Power Station.
During the day, Drax Plant Director Bruce Heppenstall and two of the company’s longest serving employees officially named GB Railfreight’s Class 66 Locomotive 66301 as “Drax Power Station 50”.
Drax has also commemorated its special anniversary with a series of charter trains that carried passengers around the Drax power station rail loop to raise money for charity.
Passengers could see locomotives that have moved materials to Drax Power Station throughout its 50-year history.
Responses
Drax really isn’t a “renewable power pioneer” as this article erroneously claims – no doubt based on a press release from Drax.
Drax burns trees obtained from cutting down North American forests and the pellets thus produced are shipped to Britain in diesel powered ships. It’s true that the cut down forests will eventually re-grow and so re-absorb the CO2 that is released instantly when the pellets are burned, but this will take scores of years to happen.
Drax has garnered huge subsidies from the British taxpayer by pretending to be “green” but I’m afraid it makes huge profits for its investors on a false premise.
“renewable” is a matter of interpretation – they appear to chop trees down in North America and ship the wood pellets to the UK. I’m not alone in being a little sceptical…..
Hauling that large train over the Settle and Carlisle would have involved quite a few extra miles compared to its usual route. Surely that wasn’t just to get that photo?
Drax biomass just been fined £25 million for fidling figures regards carbon and sustainable trees, and cost of shipping pellets from Canada, it’s one big lie, but they still get £600 million in subsidies, by looking good but breaking all rules.
“Biomass” formed of wood pellets sourced by clear-felling millions of hectares of virgin forest in North America, which is then shipped half way round the world and burnt in Yorkshire is NOT renewable. Drax and many other dishonest corporations, for example the many operators of waste incinerators who have gamed the system by getting their activities classified as “renewable energy generation” are practicing a cruel (but very profitable) deception on the public, and contributing to global heating. The only genuinely renewable energy is that generated by wind, solar and hydro power.
‘Drax is the largest single source of CO2 in the UK’
It’s not renewable and it’s not sustainable. Taxpayers money should not be used to subsidise this madness and needs to stop.
“(Drax) uses sustainable biomass, and the company’s rail freight partners transport the compressed wood pellets from ports across Northern England to Drax Power Station.”
Once upon a time, Drax used domestically-produced coal; now, it has woodchips shipped about 3,500 miles from North Carolina – AND it is burning the forests of North Carolina faster they they can regrow. How can ANYONE with a working mind call that “sustainable”?
Burning trees imported from America is not a sustainable operation. Also the co2 emissions are much greater than with coal
Very true, coal burnt emissions are less toxic than the so called renewable timber supplies. Crazy gullable governments aided by the nutty greens🤦♂️