Understanding the cost of the Drax BECCS plant to UK consumers

Ember estimates that Drax's proposed BECCS plant would cost UK energy bill-payers £31.7 billion over a 25-year lifetime, adding approximately £16 annually to each household's energy bill. The report warns that the project's ability to provide negative emissions is highly uncertain due to the carbon neutrality assumptions of woody biomass, which may instead result in net emissions in worst-case scenarios. It argues that relying on BECCS for the UK's net-zero targets constitutes a serious policy risk and recommends tightening biomass regulations and exploring alternative negative emission sources.

• The central estimate for the total cost of the proposed Drax BECCS plant to UK energy bill-payers is £31.7 billion over a 25-year plant lifetime, with a range between £23.5 billion and £44.3 billion.
• The estimated £31.7 billion subsidy would result in an annual increase of approximately £16.44 on the electricity bills of each UK household.
• There is a significant risk that the BECCS plant will not deliver negative emissions because the carbon neutrality of burning wood is contested; in some scenarios, burning biomass can produce more emissions than coal, making the plant a net emitter.
• The UK's reliance on BECCS for net-zero targets is high; the Climate Change Committee's Sixth Carbon Budget estimates 20Mt of annual greenhouse gas removals from the power sector BECCS by 2050, while National Grid ESO estimates a requirement of 49-61Mt.
• Drax is currently heavily dependent on public funds, having earned £832m in public subsidy and £258m in carbon-tax breaks in 2020, with total subsidies from 2012 to 2027 expected to exceed £10 billion.
• The report suggests that the UK government should explore alternative negative emission sources, such as nature-based solutions and direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS), rather than relying primarily on BECCS.

APA

MacDonald, P., & Harrison, T. (2021). Understanding the cost of the Drax BECCS plant to UK consumers. Ember. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2021/05/The-cost-of-Drax-BECCS.pdf

Chicago

MacDonald, Phil, and Tomos Harrison. Understanding the cost of the Drax BECCS plant to UK consumers. Ember, 2021. https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2021/05/The-cost-of-Drax-BECCS.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=MacDonald |first1=Phil |last2=Harrison |first2=Tomos |title=Understanding the cost of the Drax BECCS plant to UK consumers |publisher=Ember |date=May 2021 |url=https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2021/05/The-cost-of-Drax-BECCS.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{macdonald2021understanding, author = {MacDonald, Phil and Harrison, Tomos}, title = {{Understanding the cost of the Drax BECCS plant to UK consumers}}, institution = {Ember}, year = {2021}, month = may, url = {https://ember-energy.org/app/uploads/2021/05/The-cost-of-Drax-BECCS.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }