Drax has denied its plans to build new gas turbines at its north Yorkshire plant are a threat to the net-zero process, as the project was hit with a legal challenge.
As Utility Week previously predicted, environmental law firm, ClientEarth, has launched a judicial review against the government’s approval for the project, which would see two coal units replaced with combined-cycle gas replacements.
Secretary of state for business and energy, Andrea Leadsom, gave the scheme the green light in October, against the recommendations of the planning inspectorate.
ClientEarth insists that the combination of the project’s scale, emissions intensity and operating life make it a significant threat to the UK’s carbon targets.
The group’s climate lawyer Sam Hunter Jones said: “The secretary of state has ignored the recommendations of her own planning authority, and her decision is at odds with the government’s own climate change plans to decarbonise in a cost-effective manner.
“Only this month David Attenborough warned governments to take more action to tackle global heating, pointing to the Australian bushfires as proof humanity’s moment of crisis has come.
“With scientists also ringing the alarm bells for decades, we shouldn’t need to take the government to court over its decision to allow what would be Europe’s biggest gas plant.”
However, Drax contended that the project was a part of the net-zero journey not a hindrance to it.
In a statement, the group said: “Drax’s ambition is to become carbon negative by 2030 using ground-breaking bioenergy with carbon capture and storage technology (BECCS) to remove millions of tonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere each year, making a significant contribution to the UK’s climate targets. Drax’s carbon negative ambition could be achieved with new, high efficiency gas power capacity as part of our portfolio of flexible generating assets. “
It added: “We are exploring a range of options using different, flexible technologies, including this high efficiency gas project. It could support the continued decarbonisation of the energy system, helping the UK on its path to net zero by 2050, in line with the government’s policies.”
The project is designed to replace the two remaining coal units at the Selby plant with two combined-cycle gas turbine units, each comprising two 600MW gas turbines and a 600MW steam turbine. In total, it would create 3.6GW of new high-efficiency gas generation.