Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the potential maximum annual amount of CO2 that captured in the UK (a) bioenergy with carbon capture, use and storage and (b) that technology operating at Drax power station by 2050.

Through the Biomass Strategy, which will be published later this year, the UK will establish the role of Bioenergy with Carbon Capture & Storage (BECCS) in reducing carbon emissions across the economy and set out how the technology could be deployed.

The Net Zero Strategy, outlined the UK’s ambition of 5MtCO2/year of engineered removals by 2030 and included illustrative ranges of 22-23MtCO2/year of engineered removals by 2035 and 75- 81MtCO2/year by 2050. Power BECCS projects have the potential to play a role in reaching these ambitions.

The UK is currently assessing the potential for carbon capture at existing UK biomass plants, however no decision has been made on future BECCS deployment or the award of power BECCS contracts.