Giant biomass plant reveals burning of wood pellets made 9% of UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share
Britain’s reliance on burning wood to generate electricity has reached record highs, even as the government moves to curb the controversial use of biomass power.
The latest figures supplied by the owner of the huge Drax biomass plant in North Yorkshire have revealed that power generated from burning biomass wood pellets provided 9% of the UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share.
Weeks later, biomass provided almost a fifth (17%) of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low.
Britain’s record reliance on biomass generation has reached new heights as the government set out its plans to dramatically reduce the controversial energy source under a new subsidy agreement with the FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant.
Under the deal, Drax will continue to earn more than £1m a day from energy bills in exchange for burning wood pellets at its power plant. However, it will only be supported to run just over a quarter of the time, down sharply from almost two-thirds of the time currently.
When the deal was agreed in February, the energy minister, Michael Shanks, said the company’s subsidies had been cut because it “simply did not deliver a good enough deal for billpayers and enabled Drax to make unacceptably large profits”.
Drax has also faced a backlash from green groups amid criticism of the company’s claims that it sources wood only from “well‐managed, sustainable forests” to manufacture the pellets burned at its power plant.
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Article continues at https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/03/uk-using-more-wood-to-make-electricity-than-ever-drax-figures-show
