In response to a recent report from the think tank Ember, about the costs of delivering BECCS at scale, Dr Nina Skorupska, CEO of the REA said:

“The IPCC and the UK’s Climate Change Committee, which are the world’s and the UK’s leading climate science authorities agree that BECCS is a key tool in reaching Net Zero. It will help us to get there quicker and with less cost to energy bill payers.

“A report by the energy consultancy Baringa estimated that BECCS at Drax will save the UK consumer £4.5billion over the next decade (and up to £5billion by 2050), compared to not using it to reach Net Zero.

“The costs of individual BECCS plants will be a matter for individual companies to assess and present to the government, and they have an incentive to drive down costs. Drax, themselves, have stated it doesn’t recognise the figures in Ember’s report, including the expected cost of building and running the plant, nor the scale of the BECCS operations that Ember projects.

“Sustainable biomass, which is at the heart of BECCS, has been crucial for moving the UK away from coal and in helping other renewable technologies to be deployed at scale. The working forests that supply UK biomass power generation have seen an increase in their tree cover whilst supplying thinnings and residues from forestry for use in UK renewable energy generation.

“As the Baringa report shows, BECCS has a key role in bringing down the cost of Net Zero and we would be unnecessarily raising costs if we went ahead without it.

“The UK is already facing a huge challenge in ramping up low-carbon generation in time to deliver its ambitious targets. BECCS will make this easier and more affordable.”