The Yorkshire-based Drax power company has signed a £50m deal to enable it to burn biomass at its Selby power station.
The deal with power generation technology provider Alstom will allow the power station to burn 1.5 million tonnes of biomass per year. The facility will rely mainly on imported woodchips to begin with.
When complete in late 2009, the project is expected to be the largest biomass co-firing project in the world, generating 400MW of power.
The development is part of Drax’s commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions by 15%. The company wants to produce 10% of its output from co-firing, the equivalent of 500 wind turbines, equating to more than two million tonnes of CO2 annually.
“We have a role to play in the transition towards a low carbon enonomy whilst delivering reliable supplies of electricity,” said Drax chief executive Dorothy Thompson.
