The British power producer Drax Group generated 20 TWh of electricity in 2017 (+2% on 2016), 65% of which from renewable energies. Under pressure from the UK authorities to shut down all coal-fired plants by 2025, the Drax plants increasingly turned to burning biomass (wood pellets) and gas instead of coal and petcoke. However, the company reported a 1.5% increase in coal-powered generation over 2017 (7 TWh). The 3,960 MW Drax power plant originally featured six coal-fired units of 660 MW each, of which three have already been upgraded to run on biomass pellets. As of 2017, 68% of its power originated from biomass and three units (about 645 MW of electrical power capacity) ran exclusively on wood pellets.
The company's B2B energy supply business is now the fifth largest in the United Kingdom and 46% of the electricity sold came from renewable sources. 15% of the UK's renewable electricity was produced by the company, which benefited from the first year of operation of its third biomass unit under the Contract for Difference (CfD) support scheme.
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