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By VICKI OWEN, FINANCIAL MAIL ON SUNDAY PUBLISHED: 22:18, 24 August 2013 Target: Dorothy Thompson has faced green protests Power giant Drax’s chief executive, Dorothy Thompson, reckons burning wood for light and heat is as old as time – and it’s hardly fracking, so why all the protests? The Drax power station in North Yorkshire is the UK’s biggest single emitter of carbon dioxide, but Thompson’s plan to turn its fuel from coal to biomass – wood-based pellets – has made environmentalists see red. Drax is the largest coal-fired power station in Western Europe and produces about 7 per cent of UK electrical consumption – enough for six cities the size of Leeds. But campaigners argue that it is a myth that biomass is a low-carbon process and its large-scale use for power generation is sustainable, claiming it leads to the destruction of forests. Drax’s annual meeting was targeted in April by protesters chanting ‘Drax, Drax, what do you say? How many trees have you killed today?’and carrying ‘Drax the Destroyer!’ banners. Thompson remains unfazed, proudly recalling the moment a few months ago when, in the Starship Enterprise-like control room of the power station, her ‘Project Phoenix’ staff flicked the switch that made one unit of the station run solely on biomass for the first time. ‘It was the culmination of ten years of research, development and analysis, and it started beautifully. I mean very smoothly. It is as old as time to burn wood to generate energy.’ Drax’s critics, she says, just don’t see the full picture. ‘I think controversial might be the wrong word for biomass. I think it is counter-intuitive. And, certainly, when we started it wasn’t the route I thought we’d go down. The Drax power station in North Yorkshire (pictured) is the UK’s biggest single emitter of carbon dioxide ‘It is one of those classic cases where you really have to understand the data. People who haven’t understood the data sometimes come to what I would suggest is the wrong conclusion. When we burn biomass we get about 80 per cent carbon savings relative to coal and we really do calculate the carbon cost all the way along the chain. ‘There are only two ways you can reduce carbon emissions: either improve your efficiency so you use less fuel for the same output or change what you burn. ‘Well, we’ve invested more than £100million in improving our efficiency and we’re pretty well at the technical limit. So in parallel we’ve been working on burning this renewable fuel, which is biomass.’ The vast majority of it is imported from the US, and Drax is two months into building huge processing facilities there. Thompson describes biomass as the ‘residues, leftovers and low-value products of agriculture and forestry’. She says: ‘The UK is really quite a small island and it doesn’t have that much forestry and agriculture, and it certainly doesn’t have enough to produce low-value biomass, so the vast majority we burn we import from the US, which has a vibrant commercial forestry industry.’ Huge quantities of biomass will be stored in four large domes – each 30 per cent bigger than the Royal Albert Hall. Indeed, everything about Drax is big: the company has just unveiled a new 62ft-long railway wagon, the largest sealed wagon in the UK, 200 of which are being produced for transporting biomass to Drax. Starship enterprise: The futuristic control room that runs the biomass operation Despite the protests, Drax’s conversion to biomass is on course: ‘We’re hoping to convert the next unit next summer and the third in 2016 and we’re beginning to design plans for a conversion of the fourth. It is ‘‘wow’’. It has never been done at this scale before – all new.’ Thompson’s first experience of the power sector came from funding an independent power project in the Philippines. Now the former banker, who is married with two children, divides her time between a ‘very low-carbon house’ in London with solar panels and ground-sourced heating, a York home nearer to the power station, along with trips to the Ipswich-based retail business, Haven Power, and America. She admits she knew nothing about biomass before joining Drax in 2005, but claims the Government is supportive. ‘It has put significant investment into understanding the detail of biomass and is going to be the first in the EU to produce mandatory sustainability standards for biomass,’ she says. When it comes to national energy policy, she believes the Coalition is right to keep its options open. ‘It is driving policy to create capacity, to essentially ensure you always have sufficient supply to meet demand. ‘People care a lot about security of power supply, so I think they will support it because they want to have electricity to light their homes and power their washing machines.’ Thompson can take some comfort, perhaps, that Drax is not involved in fracking, which has led to large environmental protests at Balcombe in West Sussex. ‘We have a source of wealth [shale] for the country, and we can either neglect it and import from where we are importing – Russia, the Middle East – or we can choose to develop it. It’s our choice,’ she says. Thompson believes her business has the support of the broader community. ‘One of the things I think is really stunning is the support we have from the local community,’ she says. They’ve been absolutely fantastic. It’s a big construction, there are villages behind us, but there’s been nothing. No complaints. Nothing. ‘We try to be as responsible as we can. But you’d think someone would say something. I’m really, impressed. We’ve had no nimbyism at all.’ A huge new plant that ‘captures’ CO2 and stores it deep under the seabed The downside is that CCS plants demand more energy to work properly It sounds like the answer to a previously insoluble problem: coal-burning power stations belching out carbon dioxide could divert the fumes into a massive pipe to be stored under the seabed. It is called carbon capture and storage, and Drax Power, Alstom and BOC have formed a consortium to develop the White Rose Project on land next to to the Drax power station. The consortium is seeking funding from the Government and the European Union for the project, which will be a 426MW new-build power plant that could burn coal together with biomass, producing enough power to meet the needs of more than 630,000 homes. Drax says 90 per cent of all carbon dioxide produced by the plant will be captured and transported by pipes underneath Yorkshire for permanent storage beneath the North Sea seabed in depleted oil and gas fields. The downside is that CCS plants demand more energy to work properly, while the technology has yet to be produced on a truly industrial scale. Nevertheless, a US study reckoned America had enough storage capacity for 900 years worth of carbon dioxide at current production rates. The Drax consortium, one of two preferred bidders, is in discussions with the Government for funds to conduct a study, lasting about 18 months. A final investment decision will be taken by the Government in early 2015. 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