The UK’s largest bioenergy provider has been advised by its personal scientific advisers to cease calling biomass ‘carbon impartial’ – elevating “difficult questions” about the way forward for the controversial power kind when its subsidies expire in 2027.
Drax started burning woody biomass pellets as an alternative of coal to provide electrical energy ten years in the past, on the premise that doing so successfully neutralises the planet-heating carbon emissions, as a result of new bushes are planted to soak up these gases.
This science is disputed, however the UK authorities lessons bioenergy as renewable. This qualifies Drax for subsidies of round £1.7 million a day for offering about 6% of the nation’s electrical energy.
Drax has now been advised by its impartial advisory board to “reassess its criteria for determining carbon neutrality”, in line with a abstract of conferences and correspondence final yr.
“Drax should move away from saying ‘carbon stocks are increasing/stable’ and stating biomass is carbon neutral,” added the board, chaired by former authorities chief scientific adviser Professor Sir John Beddington.
It comes as Drax meets for its AGM at present.
It will probably be hoping for a touch of additional subsidies within the authorities’s lengthy overdue technique on biomass – fuels produced from bushes and crops, normally from abroad – anticipated by the top of June.
“Deeply worrying” however “nuanced”
Energy coverage professor Rob Gross, who directs the UK Energy Research Centre, known as it “surprising” if Drax has not but “nailed down the criteria”.
“The premise on which Drax was converted to bioenergy, and the basis on which it’s been given government subsidies was that bioenergy is zero carbon, or at least very low carbon, and can contribute towards our carbon targets and net zero”, he mentioned.
A spokesperson for Drax mentioned: “The science that underpins our approach is complicated, nuanced and evolves, and we take our responsibility to continue to develop our explanation of it very seriously.”
The advisory board “reaffirmed the importance of our ongoing work to expand our use of science and evidence in how we discuss our carbon accounting and biomass more generally”, they added.
Last summer time Drax denied complaints to a UK authorities physique that its claims to carbon neutrality had been deceptive and breached OECD pointers.
Phil MacDonald, from power thinktank Ember, described the findings as “deeply worrying”.
He mentioned Drax has “had more than a decade of operations to get its argument straight on why burning biomass is good for the climate”.
If biomass weren’t carbon impartial, some emissions could must be added to the UK’s tally.
This prospect would possible be unattractive to the UK authorities, which is off beam to satisfy its objectives to slash emissions and finally attain web zero by 2050.
‘Difficult questions on biomass future’
The board’s advice “raises difficult questions about the future of biomass beyond 2027” when subsidies expire, mentioned Dr Dan Quiggin, senior analysis fellow at thinktank Chatham House.
Ministers are below stress to not renew subsidies for bioenergy mills amid some concern that burning wooden to generate electrical energy damages forests, soils and habitats, and will even enhance carbon dioxide emissions.
The United Nations’ local weather scientists, the IPCC, mentioned bioenergy can result in a rise or lower in emissions, relying on how sustainably the fabric is sourced, transported and so forth.
Drax and the federal government say its operations observe the strictest sustainability standards, and assesses its carbon affect utilizing agreed IPCC strategies.
“We can live without Drax because we can live without any individual power station,” mentioned Professor Gross. But whether or not we might need to is one other query, he mentioned, particularly because the UK reassesses its power safety.
“It’s not reliant upon the gas supplies from other countries, and, unlike wind and solar, it’s flexible. You can turn it up, you can turn it down, you can turn it off.”
Drax has warned its operations could turn out to be unviable after 2027, until the federal government pledges additional subsidies to assist it develop bioenergy with carbon seize and storage (BECCS), which includes storing the emissions from the plant underground, with a view to provide unfavourable emissions.
‘Preventing runaway local weather change tougher to realize’
The “concerning” half, in line with Dr Quiggin, is that if bioenergy shouldn’t be carbon impartial to start out with, it reduces the affect of including on carbon seize and storage (CCS), as a result of a few of the carbon removals could be spent on offsetting these emissions.
“The carbon negative emissions of BECCS in the future could be lower, and that will mean that meeting our climate targets and preventing runaway climate change is that much harder to achieve,” he mentioned.
The authorities’s local weather advisers, the CCC, says the UK will depend on unfavourable emissions, or carbon removals to satisfy local weather targets, as a result of some sectors like aviation could be unattainable to rid of emissions.
A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero mentioned: “The Government, with support from the Committee for Climate Change, considers biomass a critical renewable and low carbon energy source.
“It has helped to dramatically scale back the usage of fossil fuels and our publicity to risky world fuel costs, and offered an extra supply of power to bolster our power safety.”
A Drax spokesperson added: “Biomass has a crucial function to play in supporting power safety because the world decarbonises, displacing fossil fuels with renewable, dispatchable energy.
“Drax is committed to ensuring that the biomass we source delivers positive outcomes for the climate, nature and the communities in which we operate.”
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