January saw the first of our 2025 industry visits organised by the Yorkshire Farmers Club – an initiative of the Yorkshire Rural Support Network at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society – this time to Drax Power station.
During an informative guided tour around the site, just outside Selby, members of the Community and Education team at Drax shared a brief history of the power station, including some fascinating insights into the proposed BECCS (Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage) plans for the North East of England.
These proposals aim to capture and store carbon from the biomass energy now produced at Drax.
Behind the scenes
After our health and safety briefing and a detailed overview of how the power station produces electricity for the National Grid, we were given our orange hard hats, yellow waistcoats and safety glasses for the tour.
One of the highlights was seeing the control room which manages each of the four working turbines, complete with multiple screens and a team of experienced controllers who have all worked at Drax for many years and therefore have an understanding of each one of the complex elements at work to produce our energy.
We saw the main (enormous!) turbine hall – an awesome structure complete with built-in cranes.
Due to the noise inside, we were issued with headsets for ear protection that allowed our guide to talk to us via the headsets – a clever way to keep the tour engaging.
It was great to be taken to the viewing gallery where we could truly get a sense of the size of the hall.
We also drove to the biomass delivery area and were able to watch as two trains delivered the wooden pellets.
It’s apparently very rare to see two trains at the same time – apparently due to the very cold weather and the increase in energy requirements.
And one of the trains was painted in a cool London Transport Museum livery so according to our guide, Lee, another rarity we were privileged to witness for the train spotters amongst us!
Fascinating insights
As we finished the tour, we had a close-up view of the huge cooling towers working to cool the water used in producing energy before it is reused.
It was interesting to find out more about the source of the biomass utilised at Drax with 98% coming from managed forests in the USA and Canada.
The remaining 2% is sourced locally in the UK.
There are over 650 staff employed in the area, and they work with many local schools to encourage young people to go into science.
Everyone who came along left with a newfound respect for the ability to turn on a kettle and use energy at the flick of a switch, and a much greater understanding of where that energy comes from.
A big thank you to all the Team at Drax for hosting us so generously and for making us so warmly welcome on a bitterly cold January Day.
Our next visit is to Wensleydale Creamery on Thursday 27th March for a cheese making experience and lunch – full details here.
Sign up to our Yorkshire Rural Support Network mailing list to receive updates first on forthcoming Yorkshire Farmers Club visits – click here and scroll towards the bottom of the page for the sign-up form.
What is the Yorkshire Farmers Club?
A new initiative of the Yorkshire Rural Support Network at the Yorkshire Agricultural Society, the Yorkshire Farmers Club has been set up to give more senior members of the county’s working farming community the chance to meet up, off-farm and in likeminded company for industry visits.
The Yorkshire Farmers Club is essentially a social club for people who still have active farming minds, who are still involved in a farm business, perhaps have more time to get off farm and welcome the chance to be immersed in current industry intrigue.
The Club has the potential to help tackle social isolation and loneliness in the community by reconnecting farming people and creating opportunities for likeminded people to perhaps forge new friendships.
To read about some of the Club’s other visits, to British Sugar’s Newark factory, click here, and to Metcalfe Farms, click here.
