Co-firing contract

Drax Power has signed an £18m design-and-build contract with C Spencer for the supply of biomass co-firing infrastructure at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire.

The deal will see Spencer provide rail unloading equipment and biomass storage-and-handling facilities for the co-firing systems that are being developed at Drax’s 4,000MW power station.

Co-firing involves mixing and burning of renewable biomass materials with coal and is regarded as having significant potential for reducing CO₂ emissions. According to Drax, the rail unloading and storage systems represent a major component of the new co-firing facility at Drax and are designed to receive and transport processed biomass materials to be fired in the power station’s coal-fired boilers.

Once completed, the biomass facility will be the largest of its type in the world, providing Drax with a total capacity of 500MW of renewable energy.

Drax estimates that the facility will reduce Drax Power Station emissions by more than two 2.5m tonnes per year, in line with the company's climate-change policy.