Drax has announced completion of its acquisition of Pinnacle Renewable Energy Inc. – a major producer and supplier of compressed bioenergy pellets. Drax received support from both sets of shareholders with 95.97 per cent of Pinnacle’s and 99.99 per cent of Drax’s shareholders voting in favour.
The acquisition will increase Drax’s annual operational capacity to 4.9 million tonnes of sustainable biomass pellets from 2022, at 17 plants in locations across Canada and the US– up from the current 1.6Mt. Of this increased capacity, 2.9 million will be available for Drax’s self-supply requirements from 2022. It will also give the Group access to four deep water port facilities and three major wood fibre baskets. By advancing the strategy to increase self-supply and reduce biomass production costs, the acquisition paves the way for the company’s plans to deliver Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS), permanently removing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. This is in line with Drax’s purpose of enabling a zero carbon, lower cost energy future, and achieve its ambition to become a carbon negative company by 2030.
