UK's Drax power plant gets approval for carbon capture plan

LONDON (Reuters) - British power plant operator Drax said on Tuesday the government had approved its planning application to convert two biomass units at its Drax plant to use carbon removal technology known as bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS).

The Drax power station currently has four biomass generating units and produces about 4% of Britain's power and 9% of its renewable electricity.

BECCS is currently the only credible large-scale technology that can both remove carbon and generate renewable power.

In March, Britain laid out plans to boost its energy security and independence by investing in efforts to move towards cleaner, more affordable energy sources, including projects to capture and store carbon dioxide.

"The DCO (development consent order) approval is another milestone in the development of our BECCS plans and demonstrates both the continued role that Drax Power Station has in delivering UK energy security and the critical role it could have in delivering large-scale carbon dioxide removals to meet Net Zero targets," Will Gardiner, CEO of Drax Group said.

(Reporting by Anchal Rana in Bengaluru and Marwa Rashad in London; Editing by Shailesh Kuber and Mark Potter)