Drax, the UK’s largest power plant and single biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, has entered into a partnership to develop a major artificial intelligence datacentre on its site in North Yorkshire. The project involves infrastructure investor Brookfield and AI infrastructure platform Radiant, with total investment potentially exceeding £20bn. The datacentre is designed to eventually reach capacity of more than 1 gigawatt, with initial operations targeted to commence by early 2028.
In the first phase of development, Drax will provide land and access to the national power grid through existing connections at the site. The company aims to transition to directly powering the datacentre by the early 2030s, pending regulatory approvals. Phase one is expected to be operational from the first quarter of 2028 with up to 100 megawatts of compute capacity. Drax’s chief executive stated the initiative would secure the site’s long-term future, preserve hundreds of jobs, and support regional reindustrialization while strengthening the nation’s artificial intelligence capabilities.
The project represents a strategic pivot for Drax following government signals to curtail the plant’s power generation role. The government indicated Drax would have a “much more limited role” in future energy production, reducing its daily subsidies from £2m to a lower level between 2027 and 2031. Company equity analysts responded positively to the announcement, with Drax’s market value rising nearly 9% on the London Stock Exchange to approximately £3bn.
The datacentre development arrives following the government’s release of a draft national policy statement emphasizing the fundamental economic importance of such facilities. However, the project has raised considerations regarding the UK’s congested electrical grid infrastructure and legally binding climate objectives, with questions emerging about whether rapid datacentre expansion could be sustained without heavy reliance on expensive and polluting off-grid gas generation.
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