The government has agreed with a new financing arrangement with the controversial wood Drax power plant which, according to it, will half the grants.
The power plant, a coal factory converted in North Yorkshire, generates around 5% of the electricity in the United Kingdom and has received billions of pounds from the government and payers because the wood pellets are classified as a source of renewable energy.
Although it is planned to possibly capture the carbon issued by Drax, its emissions from the combustion of the pastilles are currently tirelessly.
The detractors of the power plant called it one of the main transmitters of the United Kingdom of Climate Warming Gas Co2, but Drax disputes this description.
It argues that the burning wood is neutral carbon because when the trees are cut for fuel, new trees can be planted which effectively reabsorbed carbon dioxide released.
The new agreement will take place from 2027 to 2031 and will only see the power plant will only be used as a backup for cheaper renewable power sources.
The government says it means that when there is a lot of wind and solar energy, Drax will not work at all.
He indicates that the company is currently receiving nearly one billion pounds per year of subsidies and plans that this figure goes more than reducing by half to 470 million pounds sterling under the New Deal.
Michael Shanks, the Minister of Energy, said that the previous subsidy system had allowed Drax to make “unacceptablely important profits” and that the new agreement would be a “change of value stage for money and the sustainability”.
In a press release, Drax declared that the new mechanism would represent a “net economy” for consumers and the cited analysis which suggested that it would reduce the costs of the electrical system between 1.6 billion pounds sterling and 3.1 billion sterling books per year.
A “claw mechanism” in the new arrangement is designed to prevent the company from making excessive profits if the prices of electricity increase sharply.
“Under this proposed agreement, Drax can take place to increase production when there is not enough electricity, which contributes to avoiding the need to burn more gas or import from Europe, and when ‘There is too much electricity on the British network, Drax can turn down and help balance the system, “said Will Gardiner Drax director.
The Greenpeace campaign group described the agreement “a dirty compromise with past failures”, but said that it should, hopefully, limit damage by limiting Drax operations.
“The government is still far too confident of the big pollutors asking for large subsidies to decarboniser,” said Drog Parr, director of politicians at Greenpeace. “We have cheap and clean energy sources available, and we should no longer be left to play on diagrams like this.”
The new agreement also stipulates that 100% of Drax Burns wood granules must be “sustainable” and that “materials from primary and old forests” will not be able to receive support payments.
All Drax Pellet Burns are imported, most of them from the United States and Canada.
The BBC Panorama and BBC News previously reported that Drax held operating operating licenses in British Columbia, Canada, and used wood, including whole trees, primary and old forests for its pastilles.
In response to the BBC reports, Drax admitted that he had taken wood from old forests. But he told Panorama that 77% of the materials of his Canadian wooden pastilles came from sawmill and sawmill residues, the others from forest residues and low -grade logs.
He indicates that the company does not have forests or sawmills, more offers for operating licenses and has stopped obtaining wood on certain sites, where the government of British Columbia has asked the companies of Stop more for logging.
