Drax Plans £20bn AI Data Centre at Its Yorkshire Power Station, First 100MW by 2028

Drax Group, Brookfield and Brookfield's AI infrastructure platform Radiant said on November 3, 2026 that they will jointly develop an AI data centre at Drax Power Station in North Yorkshire, England, with total investment that Brookfield estimates could exceed £20 billion (about $26.8 billion). The first phase targets up to 100 megawatts of capacity from the first quarter of 2028, backed by an initial £2.5 billion.

The plan matters because power, not chips, has become the hardest thing to secure for large AI data centres in Britain. Drax's site already has 4 gigawatts of grid access and its own generation, which the partners say lets them move faster than projects stuck in the queue for a grid connection. Drax shares jumped about 8% in early London trading after the announcement.

Key facts at a glance

• Who: Drax Group, Brookfield and Radiant, with backing from the Brookfield-Qai AI infrastructure joint venture. Qai is a technology company headquartered in Qatar.
• Where: the 1,000-acre Drax Power Station estate near Selby, North Yorkshire.
• How big: up to 100 MW from Q1 2028, a further ramp to 500 MW between 2028 and 2031, and an ambition for more than 1 GW after 2031.
• How much: potentially more than £20 billion including chips, with £2.5 billion for phase one.
• Conditions: phase one still needs planning consent, regulatory and network approvals, and a tenant.

Why a power station is becoming an AI campus

Drax Power Station is the UK's largest single source of renewable electricity by output, according to the company, and runs mainly on biomass, burning wood pellets along with smaller amounts of other plant material. According to the companies, the estate has 4 GW of grid access and 2.6 GW of active dispatchable generation, plus existing cooling systems and nearby links to the UK fibre network. Dispatchable means the output can be turned up or down on demand, unlike wind or solar.

That combination is rare. The UK government has acknowledged that grid connection delays are holding back data centre projects, and the Budget last week introduced a British Data Centre Covenant. Under it, strategically important data centres that meet tests on local investment, jobs and water use are promised faster access to power and planning, and may build onsite generation while they wait for a connection. Drax and its partners say their initial assessment is that the project fits the Covenant's criteria.

The grid problem is not theoretical. Last month Microsoft pulled out of a planned tie-up with UK AI cloud firm Nscale after the company's proposed Essex data centre could not secure a grid connection until at least 2030. A site that already has transmission capacity sidesteps much of that wait.

The phased build

The partners say a community consultation on phase one will begin shortly, with Drax aiming to start the formal planning process in the coming months.

Who is paying, and who will run it

The money comes through the Brookfield-Qai joint venture, which will back the project. Brookfield estimates total spend could top £20 billion once semiconductors are included, which shows how much of the cost of an AI data centre now sits in the hardware rather than the building.

Radiant, Brookfield's UK-headquartered compute infrastructure platform, will design, build and operate the facility. Radiant describes itself as a vertically integrated AI infrastructure company that combines utility-scale powered land, long-term capital and its own software platform, and builds what it calls AI factories for hyperscalers, enterprises, telecom operators and governments.

Sikander Rashid, Brookfield's head of AI infrastructure, called the project "a critical piece of sovereign AI." Radiant chief executive Mahdi Yahya said building and operating from the UK would give British researchers, startups and enterprises "access to frontier compute at home."

For Drax, the deal offers a second life for a plant whose role in the energy system is shifting. Chief executive Will Gardiner said the project could "help secure the long-term future of the site and protect hundreds of jobs." He added that the site is one of the few in the UK that can supply large-scale reliable power directly to data centre customers by using existing and underused generation capacity.

The open questions: tenant, approvals and carbon

The announcement is a partnership, not a finished project. Drax says progress on phase one depends on timely planning, regulatory and network approvals from the government and the system operator, and on securing a suitable tenant. No customer has been named, and no chip supplier or GPU count has been disclosed.

The timeline is also long by AI standards. The first 100 MW would not run until 2028, and the full 500 MW phase two stretches to 2031. Much can change in the market for AI compute over that period, including demand from the large model developers that typically anchor projects of this size.

Then there is the fuel. Drax's wood pellets count as renewable under UK rules, and the company has previously faced scrutiny over the government green energy subsidies it receives. Reports earlier this year suggested that burning wood for power could be worse for the climate than burning gas, even when the carbon dioxide is captured, and linking that generation to an energy-hungry AI campus is likely to draw criticism from environmental groups.

What it means for you

For businesses and developers in the UK, more domestic AI capacity could eventually mean lower latency and the option to keep sensitive workloads and data inside the country, a selling point the partners frame as sovereign AI. That benefit is years away, though; the earliest capacity is due in 2028.

For investors, the deal is a reminder that power assets are being repriced as AI infrastructure. Drax was the biggest riser in the FTSE 250 on the morning of the announcement, with its shares up around 8.5% to 877p. Gains like that can reverse if approvals or a tenant are slow to arrive. This is not investment advice.

For readers in the US, Canada and Australia, the pattern will look familiar. Developers everywhere are hunting for sites that already have grid connections, from retired coal plants to existing generation campuses, because new transmission takes years to build.

For people living near Selby, the partners say they expect to set up a voluntary community benefits fund, separate from any planning obligations, and to consult locally before seeking planning permission.

Another perspective

Supporters describe the project in strong terms. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Emma Reynolds said investments like this would "help pave the way to a new age of British reindustrialisation," and the Confederation of British Industry called the partnership a major vote of confidence in Yorkshire.

Critics are likely to focus on the energy source and the scale of the commitment. Gardiner himself framed the government's challenge as "turning that ambition into delivery," a nod to how often UK infrastructure plans stall between announcement and construction. Until a tenant signs and planners approve phase one, the £20 billion figure is a ceiling, not a commitment.

What happens next

• Shortly: a community consultation on phase one, according to the partners.
• Coming months: Drax aims to start the formal planning process.
• Before construction: regulatory and network approvals and a signed tenant.
• Q1 2028: the target date for the first up to 100 MW of capacity.
• 2028 to 2031: the planned ramp to 500 MW.

Takeaways

1. Watch for a tenant. A named anchor customer would be the clearest sign the project will reach its first phase on time.
2. Track the planning process. Consultation and planning milestones in the coming months will show whether the new Data Centre Covenant actually speeds things up.
3. Treat the £20 billion as a maximum. Only £2.5 billion is tied to phase one, and the rest depends on later phases going ahead.
4. Follow the power question. Sites with existing grid access and generation are becoming the scarcest asset in AI infrastructure, in the UK and beyond.