£1bn but falling: Record subsidy for UK biomass burning enters final year

Drax biomass power station received record public subsidies of £999 million in 2025, costing UK households approximately £13 each per year. These payments are expected to drop by about half to £460 million per year starting in 2027 as the Renewables Obligation scheme ends. Despite the subsidy reduction, Drax is projected to remain the UK's largest carbon emitter until at least 2030, while its long-term plans for carbon capture technology remain uncertain.

• Public subsidies for the Drax biomass power station reached a record £999 million in 2025, representing a 15% increase over 2024. This amounted to approximately £2.7 million per day and cost UK households roughly £13 per year.
• The subsidy structure for Drax consists of the Renewables Obligation (RO), which paid £728 million in 2025 for three generating units, and Contracts for Difference (CfD), which paid £271 million for the remaining unit.
• Public subsidies are expected to decrease by approximately 50% to around £460 million per year (roughly £1.25 million per day) starting in 2027, as the RO scheme concludes in the first quarter of 2027.
• Drax is projected to remain the largest carbon emitter in the UK until at least 2030, as the scale of its emissions will likely exceed any other industrial site or power station despite lower generation levels.
• The long-term viability of subsidies for Drax is questioned due to the failure of its carbon capture technology plans. Transitioning to bioenergy with carbon capture would require approximately £30 billion in new subsidies, exceeding the total carbon capture and storage budget.

APA

Mayo, F. (2026). £1bn but falling: Record subsidy for UK biomass burning enters final year. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/04/1bn-but-falling-Record-subsidy-for-UK-biomass-burning-enters-final-year-1.pdf

Chicago

Mayo, Frankie. £1bn but falling: Record subsidy for UK biomass burning enters final year. Ember, 2026. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/04/1bn-but-falling-Record-subsidy-for-UK-biomass-burning-enters-final-year-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Mayo |first1=Frankie |title=£1bn but falling: Record subsidy for UK biomass burning enters final year |publisher=Ember |date=16 April 2026 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/04/1bn-but-falling-Record-subsidy-for-UK-biomass-burning-enters-final-year-1.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{mayo20261bn, author = {Mayo, Frankie}, title = {{£1bn but falling: Record subsidy for UK biomass burning enters final year}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2026}, month = apr, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2026/04/1bn-but-falling-Record-subsidy-for-UK-biomass-burning-enters-final-year-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }