Renewable energy company Drax has submitted plans to build the world’s largest carbon capture facility at its North Yorkshire power station near Selby.

The company plans to invest £2bn in the 2020s in its plans to develop two bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) units.

The carbon dioxide would then, in a separate project, be transferred to under the southern North Sea, where it would be stored.

Drax says BECCS will create and support thousands of jobs in the North and enabling the UK to lead the world in a vital new technology needed to address the climate crisis.

Work to build BECCS at Drax could start as soon as 2024 and once operational the two units combined will capture at least 8 million tonnes of CO2 per year, making it the largest carbon capture and storage project in power in the world.

Will Gardiner, Drax Group CEO said: “Drax’s BECCS project provides the UK with a once in a generation opportunity to kickstart a whole new sector of the economy and lead the world in a vital green technology needed to address the climate crisis.

“Drax aims to invest billions of pounds and create thousands of jobs developing BECCS in the UK, provided that the UK Government has in place policies to support the feasibility and delivery of negative emissions technologies.

“BECCS at Drax will not only permanently remove millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere every year, but it will also generate the reliable, renewable power this country needs. No other technology can do both.”

The submission of its application for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to the Planning Inspectorate marks a major milestone in the project.

It follows two major consultations carried out by Drax, which sought to gain views from the public and key stakeholders on its BECCS plans.

Deploying BECCS on two of its generating units will support Drax’s plans to become a carbon negative company by 2030 – permanently removing more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than is produced right across its operations.

Drax plans to source up to 80% of the materials and services it needs to build its BECCS project from British businesses.

It recently announced a partnership with British Steel to identify opportunities to source the steel to build BECCS from its Scunthorpe and Teesside steelworks.