Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what sums have been paid in subsidy in each of the last five years to Drax power station for burning wood pellets.

Over the last five years, Drax’s renewable electricity generation from the co-firing of biomass and the conversion of coal-fired units to 100% biomass has been supported under the Renewables Obligation (RO) scheme. From 21 December 2016, Drax’s 3rd Conversion Unit (Unit 1) has received support under the Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme. Units 2, 3 and 4 remain under the RO.

Information is not available on support under the RO specifically for burning wood pellets. Therefore, the figures in the table below give the value of support for all of Drax’s renewable electricity generation under the scheme, to the nearest million pounds.

Payments to individual projects are not reported separately under the CfD scheme. The total value of payments to all the CfD supported projects is available in the annual reports from the Low Carbon Contracts Company, the CfD scheme administrator, at: https://www.lowcarboncontracts.uk/publications?f%5B0%5D=field_publications_category%3A29

[1] The Renewables Obligation figures are the notional value of support, based on Ofgem’s certificate report as at 01/05/2019 from their Renewables and CHP Register.