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Drax Unveils £20bn Plan for Data Centre at North Yorkshire Power Plant
Drax unveils plan for a data centre at its North Yorkshire biomass plant, with potential investment exceeding £20bn.
Key points
- The first phase would deliver up to 100 megawatts by 2028, with an initial investment of £2.5bn.
- The second phase would add an extra 500 megawatts by 2031, and total capacity could exceed one gigawatt.
- Drax shares rose 8.5 per cent to 877p on Tuesday morning, the biggest riser on the FTSE 250.
Why it matters. Chief executive Will Gardiner said the scheme could help secure the site's long-term future, protect hundreds of jobs and support northern growth.
Energy company Drax has unveiled a plan to build a new data centre on the site of its wood-fuelled biomass plant in North Yorkshire. Drax said the first phase would deliver up to 100 megawatts by 2028, and the potential investment could exceed £20bn, with an initial £2.5bn. The facility would use surplus capacity at the plant under a new partnership with AI infrastructure business Radiant.
Latest updates
Drax Unveils £20bn Plan for Data Centre at North Yorkshire Power Plant
Energy company Drax has unveiled plans to build a data centre valued at £20bn at the site of its North Yorkshire power plant. The plant at Selby currently generates electricity by burning wood pellets as fuel. The proposal positions the former coal-to-biomass site as a location for large-scale digital infrastructure. Drax has not, in the available reporting, set out a detailed timetable for the development. Questions are likely to focus on how the data centre would be powered, given the rising electricity demand of such facilities. Further details, including planning and financing, are expected as the proposal develops.