(Oil Price) – UK power group Drax has found that wood burnt at its biomass power station in the UK is “highly likely” to have come from environmentally sensitive areas of old forests in Canada, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing internal Drax emails it has seen.
A Drax internal review has found that the wood from its suppliers from British Columbia was traced to “high-risk” private land and areas, which have been designated by authorities as important for their ecological benefits, such as old wood growths capable of absorbing carbon, according to the emails seen by FT.
Burning wood pellets from these areas is not illegal per se, but it could have disrupted the ecological balances in the areas in British Columbia from where these have been sourced.
Drax supplies 5% of UK electricity from a biomass plant it has converted from coal to using wood pellets.
The company, which receives massive subsidies in the UK for burning wood pellets at its power station in North Yorkshire in England, was fined earlier this year by energy regulator Ofgem $32.6 million (£25 million) after an investigation found it had failed to report data adequately.
The investigation found that Drax lacked the necessary data governance and controls in place, according to Ofgem. This meant Drax did not give the regulator accurate and robust data on the type of wood it uses, including from its suppliers in Canada.
“There are no excuses for Drax’s admission that it did not comply with its mandatory requirement to give Ofgem accurate and robust data on the exact types of Canadian wood it utilizes. The legislation is clear about Drax’s obligations – that’s why we took tough action,” Ofgem chief executive Jonathan Brearley said.
In August, a report by climate think tank Ember found that Drax’s biomass power station is the UK’s top emitter of carbon dioxide.
A spokesperson for Drax told the Guardian at the time that Ember’s findings were “flawed” and ignored the company’s “widely accepted and internationally recognized approach to carbon accounting.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
