Drax data centre could be among UK's biggest - CEO

One of the UK's largest data centres could be built at Drax Power Station, its CEO has said, after the company secured £20bn backing for the project.

Drax said it had teamed up with Qatar-based Qai and infrastructure company Brookfield, with a view to having the centre, near Selby, operational by 2028.

Government ministers said the investment would bring economic growth and protect national interests.

However, Owen Espley, community campaigns manager for environmental charity Global Action Plan, said the extra demand on power would "make it impossible" to meet clean energy targets.

According to the plans, the centre would use 100MW electricity from early 2028, expanding to 500MW over the following three years, with further expansion in the 2030s.

The partnership companies said the project aligns with the government's Data Centre Covenant, an initiative to increase AI capacity in the UK.

Drax Group CEO, Will Gardiner, said: "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.

"Drax Power Station is one of the few UK sites that can provide large-scale reliable power directly to data centre customers by utilising existing and underutilised generation capacity."

Science minister Chris McDonald described the partnership as a "strong vote of confidence in the UK", while the Labour MP for Selby, Keir Mather, said he was "supportive of measures to invest in" Yorkshire's economy.

A BBC investigation published on Tuesday found that building data centres for AI could undermine the government's net zero by 2050 climate goal.

Four hyperscale data centres are considering using gas-fired power stations to meet the need for electricity, which would create more CO2 than the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and Southampton combined.

Responding, a government spokesperson said data centres were "essential to Britain's economy, supporting everything from online banking to NHS services".

They said pausing development would "send jobs, investment and data overseas and leave us more reliant on other countries for critical digital infrastructure".

They added: "Our new Data Centre Covenant sets clear expectations for developers to minimise water use, pay their fair share of energy costs and deliver benefits for local communities."

Espley, who campaigns against "hyperscale" data centres, said: "What we are seeing is a huge rush to build even bigger and more data centres that is out of scale with the availability of renewable energy to supply that extra demand that is coming from data centres," he said.

"The real risk of that is it leads to new fossil fuel generation."

His group, due to join protests taking place against data centres across Europe at the weekend, is calling for a moratorium on new projects while the UK Government justifies the national interest and environmental cost.

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