New research by leading consultancy, Oxford Economics, The Economic Impact of Drax Power Station in the UK, has found that the renewable power station plays a significant role in the economies of Selby and Ainsty, Yorkshire and the Humber and the UK.
The report, utilising data from 2021, calculated that the North Yorkshire site, including its supply chain, contributed £735 million (€857.2m) to UK GDP. It also supported 7,130 jobs across the country and delivered a total contribution of £154m (€179.6m) in taxes to the UK.
The research further found that in the constituency of Selby and Ainsty, 901 people were directly employed by the power station, a further 290 jobs were supported and it contributed £278m (€324m) to local GDP.
Across Yorkshire and the Humber, the combined impact of Drax Power Station was £358m (€417m) with 2,580 jobs supported.
The power station is the largest dispatchable renewable power station in the UK and across its four biomass units it can supply enough power for the equivalent of five million homes.
In March this year, almost 50 years of coal generation ended at Drax Power Station.
Between October 2021 and 2022, Drax Group generated 11% of the UK’s renewable electricity.
In addition, the business produced on average 19% of the UK’s renewables at times of peak demand and up to 70% on certain days.
Richard Gwilliam, chair of the Humber Energy Board and UK BECCS programme director at Drax Group, said: “This research underscores the critical role that Drax Power Station plays regionally and nationally. In Yorkshire and the Humber, our power station has created thousands of jobs and contributed hundreds of millions of pounds to its GDP while helping maintain energy security.
“We have been generating power at our North Yorkshire site for nearly 50 years and, providing we get the right support from the UK Government for our bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) plans, we could be doing the same for another 50.”
Providing Drax receives support from the UK government, the company plans to build two BECCS units at Drax Power Station by 2030 which could remove 8Mt of CO2 from the atmosphere per year.
Drax Power Station “contributes over £350m” to the economy of Yorkshire and the Humber
