The Future Of Drax Power Station
Drax power station is not liked by a lot of environmentalists.
I have been thinking about the future of the power station and the public company that owns it.
Drax power station has a nameplate capacity of around 2.5 GW running on biomass.
It also will be the Southern end of EGL2, which will be an undersea electricity 2 GW superhighway distributing Scottish wind power from Peterhead in Scotland. So the dreaded biomass hated by certain groups will be relegated from the Premier League of electricity generation and replaced by Scottish wind.
As reported in various publications, Drax has signed a deal in the US, so that the biomass can be used for the production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)
To my mind, the Drax site could be an ideal one for one or more small modular nuclear reactors.
- The large Drax site has been producing electricity for 52 years.
- In 1986, the site produced nearly 4 GW of electricity.
- I would suspect that the substations on the site could be enlarged to distribute 4 GW of electricity.
- EGL2 will bring in 2 GW of Scottish wind-generated electricity.
- The site has excellent rail connections.
- The site has twelve cooling towers and is encircled by the River Ouse.
- Could all this water be used for cooling the small modular nuclear reactors.
I believe that perhaps three small modular nuclear reactors could be built on the Drax site to backup EGL2 and bring a reliable source of sustainable power to Yorkshire.
Drax is also only about forty miles from the vast hydrogen stores at Aldbrough and Rough, so if Drax needed, if could use excess electricity to create hydrogen for storage.
SSE is consulting on a 1+ GW hydrogen power station at Keadby, so perhaps Drax should have a similar hydrogen power station on its site?
The Anonymous Widower 
DRAX’s 400kV substation can export the full 4GW of power. Its connected to the MITS by 3x400kV quad conductored circuits which can support 3GVA each (Winter) so EGL2 can theoretically be absorbed without having to cut DRAX’s output although very much depends on how the grids being run at anyone time.
As ana side DRAX should be shut down until its CCS retrofitted but wont be as its dispatchable so watch out for a Miliband fudge up on subsidies to keep it running.
Comment by Nicholas Lewis | February 6, 2025 |
Drax might be a prime candidate for something like Avnos, which I was very impressed with, although they won’t need the water at Drax.
But I do think, there will be a tremendous need for SAF to keep aircraft flying.
Nappies will be another bin by our door. But I do feel, someone will make SAF using carbon dioxide, which will keep long hal flight running on SAF.
Comment by AnonW | February 6, 2025 |
[…] Rolls-Royce have said that their small reactors will be around 470 MW, so I could imagine power stations of this size being placed on disused coal-fired power station sites to boost power in an area. I have already suggested building some on Drax in The Future Of Drax Power Station. […]
Pingback by Ministers Will Relax Rules To Build Small Nuclear Reactors « The Anonymous Widower | February 6, 2025 |
and time to use the waste heat (from the biomass generators , small nuclear reactos, etc ) for something more useful rather than dumping in the air – heating greenhouses for cucumbers, peppers and whatever else we import from Spain and Morocco. Food sustainability and saving road miles.
Comment by chilterntrev | February 22, 2025 |