Drax pauses world’s largest Beccs project

Major biomass power generator says £2bn project cannot proceed without clarity on UK government support for technology

UK-headquartered Drax Power has paused a £2bn ($2.4bn) project to build the world’s largest bioenergy with CCS (Beccs) facility, citing a lack of clarity on UK government support for the technology. Drax operates 2.6GW of biomass-fired power generation at its plant in Yorkshire in the north of England, making it the country’s largest provider of dispatchable electricity supply. It has outlined plans to start installing CCS at the plant in 2024 with the aim to capture at least 8mn t/yr, making it potentially the world’s largest Beccs facility. The decision to pause the project comes after the UK government in its spring budget in March committed £20bn to support the deployment of CCS but made