Drax : launches £500 grants for education and skills charities in Scotland

Drax's Charity Committee has a dedicated fund for supporting good causes local to its operations in Scotland, which include Cruachan Power Station, Daldowie Fuel Plant and the Lanark and Galloway Hydro Schemes.

It accepts funding requests that will have a positive impact on the local community by supporting the company's STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) education outreach work and improving skills and employability.

Last year, Drax provided a £636,000 support package for communities which included donating laptops to schools to support students with home schooling, free energy for small care homes and launched virtual tours and work experience programmes to keep STEM learning opportunities open during the pandemic.

Alan Knight, Group Director of Sustainability and Chair of the Charity Committee, said:

'Drax has a long history of supporting the communities local to its operations. It's vital that businesses like Drax play their part in boosting education and employability so people are equipped with the relevant skills to support a green economy.

'We welcome applications from organisations which share Drax's aims of boosting social mobility or improving the local area.'

Lochnell Primary School in Benderloch, Argyll, recently received support from the Drax Charity Committee. Headteacher Louise Chisholm said:

'We are grateful to Drax for its ongoing support for education and skills - it makes a real difference to the students' experience which is so important - especially during the challenges of the last year. We've used the latest funding to further develop our children's curiosity and skills in computing and science by purchasing Lego WeDo kits which allow the children to build and program their own projects.'

Charities and community organisations local to Drax's operations which support STEM and education outreach, skills and employability, or which work to improve local communities, can apply for up to £500 per year from Drax.

Drax recently began the planning process to build a new underground pumped hydro storage power station that will more than double the electricity generating capacity of the iconic 'Hollow Mountain' Cruachan facility. The project will support almost 900 jobs in rural areas across Scotland during construction and will provide critical storage capacity needed to support a net zero power system.

To request an application form, email [email protected]or fill out an enquiry form on the Drax website.

Main image caption: In April, Drax donated 60 laptops to schools across Scotland

ENDS

Media contacts:

Aidan Kerr
Drax Group Media Manager
E: [email protected]
T: 07849 090 368

Megan Hopgood
Media Intern
E: [email protected]
T: 07936350175

About Drax

Drax Group's purpose is to enable a zero carbon, lower cost energy future and in 2019 announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030, using Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology.

Its 3,400 employees operate across three principal areas of activity - electricity generation, electricity sales to business customers and compressed wood pellet production and supply to third parties.

Power generation:

Drax owns and operates a portfolio of renewable electricity generation assets in England and Scotland. The assets include the UK's largest power station, based at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies five percent of the country's electricity needs.

Having converted Drax Power Station to use sustainable biomass instead of coal it has become the UK's biggest renewable power generator and the largest decarbonisation project in Europe. It is also where Drax is piloting the groundbreaking negative emissions technology BECCS within its CCUS (Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage) Incubation Area.

Its pumped storage, hydro and energy from waste assets in Scotland include Cruachan Power Station - a flexible pumped storage facility within the hollowed-out mountain Ben Cruachan.

Pellet production and supply:

Drax owns and has interests in 17 pellet mills in the US South and Western Canada which have the capacity to manufacture 4.9 million tonnes of compressed wood pellets (biomass) a year. The pellets are produced using materials sourced from sustainably managed working forests and are supplied to third party customers in Europe and Asia for the generation of renewable power.

Drax's pellet mills supply around 20% of the biomass used at its own power station in North Yorkshire, England to generate flexible, renewable power for the UK's homes and businesses.

Customers:

Through its two B2B energy supply brands, Haven Power and Opus Energy, Drax supplies energy to 250,000 businesses across Britain.

For more information visit www.drax.com