From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
More from the Guardian on Drax Carbon Capture:
Drax has received permission from the government to fit carbon capture technology to its wood-burning power plant, in a project that could cost bill-payers more than £40bn.
The energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, on Tuesday approved the project to convert two of its biomass units to use the technology.
Analysts have predicted that the revamp of the North Yorkshire site could be one of the most expensive energy projects in the world.
The project could add about £1.7bn to energy bills every year if the company acts on plans to fit all four of its biomass units with carbon capture technology, or a total of more than £43bn, according to Ember, a climate thinktank.
In addition, the government is expected within days to extend a lucrative bill-payer-backed subsidy scheme that last year paid Drax more than £600m to burn trees for electricity until the end of the decade.
The decision is likely to anger environmentalists, who have campaigned against burning imported wood pellets and have opposed the multi-billion-pound subsidies paid to Drax over the past 12 years.
A report commissioned by Drax has claimed that adding carbon capture to its biomass power units could save the UK economy up to £15bn between 2030 and 2050 when compared to other, more complex carbon reduction measures using biomass.
Phil MacDonald, the chief operating officer at Ember, said the report ignored the “immediate real costs” of building the plant, which are likely to fall to taxpayers or energy users.
“Over 20 years, this could make Drax’s BECCS plans one of the most expensive energy projects in the world, funded from bill-payers’ pockets,” MacDonald said.
Just because Drax BECCS might be cheaper than other BECCS schemes is hardly a recommendation!
Ember’s costings are here. They include current subsidies and look reasonable.
Not only would Drax need to recoup the capital cost, which they have said will be billions. There will also be increased operating costs, not least because carbon capture itself is an energy intensive process. In other words, some of Drax’s generation will have to be used to power the Carbon Capture plant, instead of being sold.
According to Drax wood burning is carbon neutral because the trees will grow again so adding carbon capture means a carbon negative operation. A snip at £40bn to bill payers.
Story Tip….Well that was always going to happen.
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First comment is good and give perspective
“4.66 billion metric tons in a year is more than 15 times the UK peak annual consumption since the start of the industrial revolution.”
UK’s piddling little efforts to destroy themselves are all for nought, when it comes to global CO2 emissions.
Very nice.
This is the most important:
“Just because Drax BECCS might be cheaper than other BECCS schemes is hardly a recommendation!”
These monsters can not be allowed to mislead people like this. Spending more money is not saving. I could buy a new pickup or spend less and buy a used one, either way I am still spending money I wasn’t spending before. If my current pickup suits my needs I should stick with it especially if money is an issue. The cost of energy is a huge huge issue.
“in a project that could cost bill-payers more than £40bn” This type of madness has to stop. Spending this amount of money on something that is not based on real science is insane. Only the computer models say its a problem. We need large numbers of honest scientists to stand up and be heard.
More for green idiots to ponder… no one thinks how they will safely produce back all the injected CO2 when they find out that they screwed up yet again…..,