Energy efficiency is a direct way to cut costs, reduce emissions and improve energy resilience.
Drax is applying this approach through community projects and its own operations. Through the Drax Foundation, the company invested more than £1.2 million last year in programmes focused on energy efficiency and fuel poverty. In 2025, 22 schools received LED lighting and/or solar installations, cutting electricity bills by an average of more than 60%.
Lower energy bills can release money for teaching, facilities and pupil support. It also strengthens Drax’s local relationships in communities linked to its business. More than 1,000 households experiencing fuel poverty also received direct financial and practical support, showing how efficiency measures can reduce pressure on vulnerable consumers.
The work fits with the UK’s wider push to put more solar panels on public buildings, including schools and colleges. Drax’s projects show how relatively simple upgrades can deliver fast savings while improving awareness of energy use among pupils and staff.
Drax is also using the same logic inside its own asset base. In February 2025, the company approved an £850,000 investment to install solar panels across its Lanark and Galloway hydro sites. Once complete, the panels are expected to generate around 480MWh of renewable electricity. Most of that power will be used on site, reducing electricity drawn from the grid, with surplus power exported.
The project is expected to cut annual Scope 2 emissions across eight hydro facilities by around 500 tonnes of CO₂e. It also shows how solar and hydro can work together. Solar generation is strongest when hydro output may be lower, which can support a more balanced renewable energy mix.
Drax Group plc (LON:DRX), trading as Drax, is a power generation business. The principal downstream enterprises are based in the UK and include Drax Power Limited, which runs the biomass fuelled Drax power station, near Selby in North Yorkshire.
