Bullshit Squared: Equipping UK Wood Pellet Plant W. "Carbon Capture" Will Cost Ratepayers 40 Billion Pounds
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.
The planning decision said the project would “make a meaningful contribution” to the urgent need for carbon capture storage infrastructure to support the government’s net zero ambitions. A separate decision about its subsidy payments will follow before 2027.
EDIT
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/jan/16/drax-gets-go-ahead-for-carbon-capture-project-at-estimated-40bn-cost-to-bill-payers