Bumper Profits For Drax Paid By £842 Million Subsidies
By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby
Britain’s biggest power station saw profits grow tenfold last year as households grappled with surging energy bills.
Drax, which once burned coal but now uses wood harvested in North American forests and shipped to the UK, known as biomass, said annual pre-tax profits jumped from £78m to £796m in 2023.
The North Yorkshire power plant revealed adjusted earnings before interest and other charges grew by 66pc to £1.2bn even as the energy crisis that has gripped Europe since the start of the Ukraine war eased.
The power supplier proposed increasing its final dividend by 10pc to 13.9p per share. The plant is vital to the UK’s energy security because it generates more than 4pc of the nation’s electricity.
It comes as British households dealt with a sharp rise in energy bills over the last two years, with the latest Ofgem price cap still leaving average annual bills hundreds of pounds higher than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Drax Group chief executive Will Gardiner said: “Drax performed strongly in 2023 and we remained the single largest provider of renewable power by output in the UK.”
Strangely the Telegraph makes no mention of the fact that Drax raked in £842 million in ROC subsidies last year, without which it would have made a loss.
Savour the thought that you have paid for Drax’s bumper profits on your energy bills!
https://www.drax.com/investors/announcements-events-reports/full-and-half-year-reports/
Comments are closed.
NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT 
Currently the burning of Biomass is designated as “CO2 neutral” by Western Nations to give the appearance of reducing CO2 emissions and thus controlling Climate Change.
The designation of Biomass burning as Carbon Dioxide emissions neutral is essentially self-defeating as:
Germany and the UK are leaders in the development of “Renewable” Energy in Europe. This post uses 2019 hourly generation datasets showing the scale of various generation technologies over the year. It combines that power output data with data on the CO2 emissions of different fossil fuels to show the extent of CO2 emissions in 2019.
It questions the efficacy of using Biomass to reduce CO2 emissions at all, as
in both contexts, the scale of CO2 emissions from Biomass cancels out any of the potential CO2 emissions savings made from using Weather-Dependent “Renewables”.
So all the excess expenditures and government subsidies for Weather-Dependent “Renewable” have done nothing to reduce Global CO2 emissions overall.
Here are the sums showing expensive the total waste for importing Biomass in the UK and Germany
https://edmhdotme.wpcomstaging.com/contradictory-biomass-policies-to-limit-co2-emissions/
The UKs total CO2 emissions make up just 0.00001% of the atmosphere , and real scientific evidence shows that CO2 has almost no effect on the climate .
The whole Net Zero / CO2 emissions fraud was invented by the Marxist / Socialist lot to try to destroy capitalism and Western economies .https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/climate-change-scare-tool-to-destroy-capitalism/
And part of the idea is to get rid of efficient energy production and cars etc and to make everybody pay far more money for other things which are nowhere near as good .
Drax for example produces a lot more CO2 than most other types of energy production , but by claiming it is ” Renewable ” , far greater costs are put on the public .
Marxist Tory madness.
Did I see that our beloved cutting-edge ‘investigative’ BBC Panorame programme is doing a piece? Only four or five years behind the sceptical blogosphere.
They also did a Panorama on this in 2022.
Yes to all above, / BUT where did the £2 Million Profit per day go? ( Xs profit to the Exchequer , or…… ?
I predict that Drax will, shortly, announce that they are planning to add-on a CO2 Capture unit to make it even more carbon neutral that will attract even more credits and subsides.
Already happened: going to add £40 bn onto our bills.
They have the govt over a barrel as we cannot afford to lose any dispatchable capacity and the grid stabilisation it provides.
…. and WHO created that scenario? Answer: The Uniparty of UK! led by ….
without which it would have made a loss.
Savour the thought that you have paid for Drax’s bumper profits on your energy bills!
Your enemy is your government. Taking it out on the people who keep you alive is foolish. You damn well better hope Drax makes a good profit. Else, you die.
One more example of the consequences of changing the world based on religion claiming to be science.
Whatever happened to the windfall tax on excess profits of energy companies? Those in favour of a windfall tax are only keen for it to be paid by oil and gas companies.
You noticed that “bias” also….
It;s quite simple really. The Government should order DRax to go back to using coal, it appears that Germany is already opening coal fired power stations. Why no windfall tax?
Half of Drax is still a coal plant as the government refused to give them taxpayers cash to convert it to tree-burning as it did for the other half. they refused to make it available for use this winter because when you drill down you will find that Drax is signed up to the Davos World Empire of Fascism.
Given all this garbage is not based on people doing sums or anything remotely to do with science ( other than political science), who will be surprised to learn that actually wood pellets produce MORE CO2 per therm than “naughty” coal because coal is a denser form of energy than wood.
Add that to the knowledge that more efficient coal based power stations can be built as well as old ones retrofitted with scrubbers to make them much much cleaner ( I do not include CO2 as any kind of pollutant because it is not). So with that knowledge, is knackerating UK and indeed Western Baseload the actual goal, rather than any Arts Graduates infantile ideas that they are “thaving the pwannet”? What are they saving it from actually?
Perhaps the human race needs a Golgafrinchan B Ark that we can load them all onto and fire it off into space!
Also it is no coincidence that the Arts Degreed fronting up this nonsense making claims about follow the science have not a clue what it is and insist on using the word Carbon to describe CO2 which as anyone with a brain and a none woke education knows are two totally different molecules. They use “carbon” because in their tiny tiny brains, carbon is black and nasty. It is no more complex than that.
This, like all the rest of the nonsensical rubbish we are being faced with in Western society is simply political, supported by an ever increasing number of clueless useful idiots, brainwashed from the first day they enter what is laughingly called “the education system” of today. It is no coincidence therefore to realize every single bit of the Leftie agenda makes life much much worse, not better in the West. That is the plan…. The Frankfurt School and Critical Theory.
Another good article about Drax by Ross Clark in the Spectator: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-farce-of-burning-wood-pellets/
Slightly O/T – but if the land was cleared of Organic Matter here, and burnt at Drax, the world would have been a cleaner / better place .
Fascism.
Drax is currently offering a yield of 5.2% but the share price has been on a bumpy ride down from a peak of 808p in April 2022 to a current price of 462p that has spiked up on the results.
Great idea! A punitive tax on energy producers for making too much money! What better way to kill your country?
Investment is over. Even repair money will be scrutinized. UK is economically the walking dead.
Move your business to South Carolina while the best sites are still available.
https://www.sccommerce.com/buildings-sites
yes since quite a whilie ….. Investment is over. Even repair money will be scrutinized What do you ( THEY) think ( business) life is like in Rural UK? The Rural community is the WORSE for our lack of Investment.
Naww, do you think I would have dreamt up building Windmills or Heavy electrical cabling for a Moroccan power station, etc ? Maybe I should go to Wimpy Homes to see if they would like to put up a Large Fuelled Power Station for me. Should I go Nuclear or Oil, huh or gas, but we’ve no pipeline here in the rock hills ( that’s what the hills are made of )
Drax are living proof that you can fool the people all of the time – burning wood pellets creates massive amounts of CO2, while producing 4% of the electrical energy the UK needs daily, but, and this is a Paul Daniel’s trick that not even he thought of – the CO2 burnt in the UK counts as being burnt in Canada so keeps up the appearance of Drax is a Green, Zero Carbon power station. With a little bit more effort, converting every home, factory, commercial office, retail shops, to burning wood pellets for cooking, heating, we could reduce our CO2 footprint even further.
What a crock of BS to continue with this fiasco, subsidies will always lead to “smart” people and their lawyers finding ways to bend and bypass the rules, laws, protocols and make serious money while appearing squeaky clean.
Ask just two questions – given that Drax is a business, with shareholders who are currently being offered a return of 5.2%, would the business be profitable without massive subsidies and without those subsidies would they bother investing knowing that shareholder returns (dividends) could be reduced to zero at a stroke.
Tbh I think the global warming trend us going to burst within 10 years
People are that stupid and stubborn they will go with the media’s next big thing
This is a money making exercise plain and simpke
Take high grade farming and coastal land stick solar panels or wind farms on them collect rebates watch renewable energy sources fail
They still ow. The land remember that and it’s always a 10-29 yr plan not over night
Here you go, Griff!
From today’s Daily Mail:
“Terrifying maps reveal the three areas of the globe that will experience record-breaking temperatures this year thanks to El Niño“
Not thanks to Climate Change!
Ever notice hows all these “will, would and must” Cassandras never offer to bet money on their predictions?
The bit of Drax that relies on CFDs didn’t do so well. Because of the bizarre way in which the Baseload Reference Price is set for 6 months at a time operating the CFD unit was effectively subject to a tax of the difference between the green line and the strike price in yellow in the chart below. So it more or less shut down, except for rare instances when the market was so tight that prices soared above the ~£400 breakeven. There was of course no way that it made sense to operate otherwise in the circumstances. Lynemouth Power Station was similarly affected.
Drax – an ideal subject for a whopping great windfall tax, surely?
Worked for Jimmeh Cahtuh! Oh wait!…
Meanwhile our “friends” in the EU ( Translated for you) :
The EU is missing 406 billion euros annually to achieve its own climate goals
By: Frédéric Simon | EURACTIVE | translated by Florian Schöneweiß
21 Feb 2024
According to the study, at least 813 billion euros are needed annually in 22 economic sectors,
to achieve the EU’s decarbonization target. This consists of a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. [Photo credit: European Union, 2023]
Euractiv is part of The Trust Project >>>
Although green investments have gained momentum in recent years,
406 billion euros are missing annually to achieve the EU’s climate goals for 2030. This is according to a new study published on Wednesday (February 21).
The figure was published as part of the “European Climate Investment Deficit” report by the Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE). The independent think
Tank is led by Jean Pisani-Ferry, a former adviser to the French government.
The report is the first of its kind to comprehensively present public and private investments in the energy, buildings and transport sectors. These are considered central to the EU’s decarbonization goals.
According to the study, at least 813 billion euros are needed annually in 22 economic sectors to achieve the EU’s decarbonization target. This consists of a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990.
But while investment in green technologies has increased over the years, it currently falls short of the volume needed to meet 2030 targets, researchers said.
“Since real economic investments reached 407 billion euros in 2022, a European climate change remains
Investment deficit of 406 billion euros per year or 2.6 percent of gross domestic product,” the report says.
Investments would therefore have to “double so that the EU can achieve the climate goals for 2030.”
The report will be presented in Brussels on Wednesday. The EU is currently preparing
institutions for the next five-year legislative period (2024-2029) after the European elections in June.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen officially submitted her candidacy for a second term on Monday.
The implementation of the climate goals for 2030 has already been named as one of the most important challenges for the next legislative period.
EU finance ministers will meet in Ghent from Thursday to Saturday to discuss the economic outlook. This is about the future policy of the European Investment Bank (EIB).
There will also be a working session with the former head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi.
In September, Draghi was tasked with drafting a report on the future of Europe’s competitiveness.
The outlook is rather bleak: Germany, the largest economy in the Eurozone,
is expected to enter a recession this quarter. France cut its growth forecasts at the weekend after the Commission cut its own forecasts for this year.
According to I4CE, closing the green investment gap requires a “comprehensive approach.” This must include regulations, a CO2
Price policy and “some additional EU public funding”.
However, this would require addressing “political issues”, such as the restrictions imposed on national spending by EU budget rules.
In addition, the role of the EU must
Funds in supporting green policies should be clarified and the debate on potential new EU funding sources should be clarified, the report says.
The EU states recently agreed on a reform of the budget rules. However, they provided only limited additional scope for green investments.
The reason for this was pressure from “frugal” states like Germany, which wanted to reintroduce the EU’s strict budget rules, which had been suspended during the corona pandemic and the energy crisis.
“The European Commission must better assess and address the EU climate investment deficit or risk
that the Green Deal is failing to deliver on its economic, social and environmental promises,” I4CE warned in the report.
The report also looks at new potential sources of funding. For example, the “Next Generation EU” plan, which currently amounts to 800 billion euros, should be continued, it is said.
The package was launched after the coronavirus pandemic and included common EU debt for the first time.
However, all of these solutions require political support from the 27 EU heads of state and government.
The European Commission itself admits that in order to achieve the EU
Climate goals will require enormous investments. A total of 1.5 trillion euros will be required annually between 2030 and 2050 to achieve climate neutrality for energy and transport.
The Commission’s figures, set out in its 2040 climate target plan, also highlight the importance of “industrial decarbonisation”,
to achieve the EU’s green goals.
This is in line with the ideas presented by President von der Leyen in her last State of the Union address in September.
I buy nuclear stock with no hesitation
Congrats, the looters have shifted a slice of GB power back in time a century or two.