£20bn partnership to deliver a 1GW UK data centre announced

Power generation company Drax will work alongside asset management firm Brookfield and its neocloud platform Radiant, with an initial 100MW data centre phase potentially receiving up to £2.5 billion (US$3.4 billion) in backing.

The new data centre would be located at Drax Power Station, a biomass and former coal plant near Selby in North Yorkshire.

The Brookfield-Qai AI infrastructure joint venture will provide backing for the project.

The first phase could be operational from Q1 of 2028, while there is the ambition to ramp up to 500MW of capacity between 2028 and 2031 for the second phase, with additional capacity after 2031.

The first phase is subject to planning, regulatory and network approvals, in addition to securing a suitable tenant for the project.

The Drax Power Station estate comprises 1,000 acres and 4GW of grid access. In its announcement, Drax said there was also 2.6GW of active dispatchable generation and cooling systems. The site is also located close to the UK fibre network.

Drax Group CEO, Will Gardiner, said, “We are proud to be partnering with leading AI infrastructure providers on this project which can help secure the long-term future of the site and protect hundreds of jobs, maintain a critical source of this country’s energy security, support northern growth and enable us to continue delivering for our local communities.

“This country has a unique opportunity to bring together AI leadership, energy infrastructure and industrial renewal to drive national growth. If constructed in full, this project could become one of the largest data centres in the UK, attracting billions in inward investment, supporting the North’s reindustrialisation and strengthening sovereign AI capability.”