Drax posts bumper profits

The energy giant’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation amounted to £731 million last year

British power generator Drax has seen its annual profit soar last year.

The company said adjusted core profit rose 83% to 731 million pounds for the year ended 31st December.

This is up nearly 84% from £398 million in 2021.

The profit before tax was £78 million, compared to £122 million the previous year.

Will Gardiner, Chief Executive Officer of Drax Group, said: “Drax delivered a strong performance in 2022 and played a significant role in ensuring security of supply during a challenging year for the UK’s energy system.

“Our renewable generation – biomass, hydro and pumped storage – are a major source of power in the UK and during periods of peak demand when there was low wind and solar power, these assets collectively supplied up to 70% of the UK’s renewable power in certain periods.

“We believe that BECCS can become a world-leading solution for large-scale high-quality carbon removals and we are seeing increasing global policy support for its delivery.

“Drax stands ready to invest billions of pounds in the development of this technology and following the introduction of the US Inflation Reduction Act, we are increasingly excited about the opportunities to deploy BECCS in the US. In response, the UK Government should accelerate its policy support for BECCS to make the UK a world leader in carbon removals, while attracting investment and delivering its net zero targets.”

Responding to the Drax profit announcement, Greenpeace UK‘s Head of UK Climate, Mel Evans, said: “It’s maddening to see Drax announcing record profits while its workers strike to avoid a real-terms pay cut and its customers suffer fuel poverty.

“Meanwhile Drax’s biomass power is built on deforestation, environmental racism and questionable carbon accounting. The government needs to end the subsidies supporting this unsustainable business, claw back these massive profits and use the money to insulate people’s homes and scale up real renewable energy like onshore and offshore wind and solar.”

Make sure you check out the latest Net Hero Podcast episode:

Latest Podcast