The owner of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire received record subsidies of almost £1bn for burning trees to generate electricity in 2025, a climate thinktank has calculated. The company was paid £999m last year for generating about 4.5% of Great Britain’s electricity from its biomass plant, costing each household £13 a year, according to analysts at Ember.
The power plant was able to claim £2.7m a day from energy bills in part by increasing its power generation by about 2% from the year before – but mostly due to the rising payouts from a legacy renewables support scheme. Drax has claimed a total of about £8.7bn in renewable energy subsidies since 2012, despite persistent claims from campaigners and scientists that the wood pellets burned at its power plant are not sourced sustainably and may be increasing carbon emissions.
The allegations have raised concerns in Westminster over the company’s claims that the millions of tonnes of wood pellets produced by its Canadian subsidiary use only low-value waste wood from sustainably managed forests. Concerns were first raised in 2022, and court documents earlier this year revealed that senior staff had raised internal concerns over the company’s statements. Drax reached a settlement with a former employee who alleged the company was “misleading the public, government and its regulator.”
The government has already halved the subsidies available to Drax under a new contract running from 2027 to 2031, and the power plant must switch to using 100% sustainable woody biomass, up from 70%. The government threatened “substantial penalties” if Drax does not comply. Frankie Mayo, author of the Ember report, said: “While it’s a relief these overly generous payments will halve from 2027, British taxpayers should never have been in this position in the first place.”
