British power firm Drax has entered into a partnership with Brookfield and AI infrastructure platform Radiant to develop a data centre with more than 1 gigawatt of capacity at its northern England power station, in a project that could attract more than £20 billion in investment.
The project could attract a total investment of more than £20 billion, including an initial £2.5 billion for the first phase, according to Drax. The Brookfield-Qai AI infrastructure joint venture will back the development.
The project will be developed in three phases. The first phase aims to deliver up to 100MW of data centre capacity, with operations targeted to begin in the first quarter of 2028. The second phase aims to increase capacity to 500MW between 2028 and 2031, while a third phase will explore additional capacity after 2031.
“Progression of the first phase is subject to the timely progression of the necessary planning, as well as receiving the required regulatory and network approvals from Government and the system operator, in addition to securing a suitable tenant for the project,” Drax said.
The power station estate comprises 1,000 acres and 4GW of grid access, with 2.6GW of active dispatchable generation and cooling systems. The site also benefits from its proximity to the UK fibre network, making it ideal for faster and more certain development of data centres.
The partnership aligns with the UK government’s ambitions to strengthen AI sovereignty and support reindustrialisation. “The UK Government is clear that countries able to host and power data centres will be better placed to protect their sovereignty, strengthen economic resilience, capture the benefits of the digital economy and shape the future of AI,” Drax highlighted.
As part of the partnership, the companies plan to establish a voluntary community benefits fund, developed in consultation with communities around the Drax Power Station site for the Drax Brookfield AI data centre. The fund will be separate from existing planning obligations and Drax’s community initiatives.
“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. We welcome the Government’s recognition that strategically important data centres need faster access to power and planning. The priority now must be turning that ambition into delivery, so projects like this can move at the pace the UK needs to compete for global AI investment,” said Drax Group CEO, Will Gardiner.
“Teaming up with Drax and Qai for this project represents a major opportunity for our AI infrastructure strategy. Our capital and deep operating capabilities will help accelerate the construction of a critical piece of sovereign AI, delivered by Radiant, our UK-headquartered compute infrastructure platform. In addition to preserving hundreds of jobs, this project will also create many direct and indirect jobs around the broader Yorkshire area,” said Sikander Rashid, Brookfield Head of AI infrastructre.
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