Drax, Brookfield and Radiant Plan Up to 1GW Data Center at Selby Power Station

Drax has picked Brookfield and its UK AI infrastructure platform Radiant to build up to 1GW of data center capacity at the 2.6GW Drax Power Station in Selby, North Yorkshire — a project Brookfield estimates could draw more than £20 billion ($26.8bn) in total investment.

The three partners will develop, deliver, and operate the site through a joint venture called Brookfield-Qai AI. Phase one targets up to 100MW and aims to be operational from Q1 2028. Phase two would scale capacity to 500MW between 2028 and 2031, with a third phase adding more capacity after 2031. The initial £2.5bn ($3.4bn) covers the first phase alone.

What's on the site?

The proposed site spans 1,000 acres with 4GW of grid access, 2.6GW of active dispatchable generation, and cooling systems already in place from the existing wood pellet plant. For context, 1GW of IT capacity would rank among the largest data center campuses in the UK.

Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner called it "one of the few UK sites that can provide large-scale reliable power directly to data center customers by utilizing existing and underutilized generation capacity."

"If constructed in full, this project could become one of the largest data centers in the UK, attracting billions in inward investment, supporting the North's reindustrialization and strengthening sovereign AI capability," he added.

What has to happen first?

Plenty. The partners say phase one will proceed only 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." No anchor tenant has been named. Community consultation begins shortly, followed by the formal planning process.

The announcement lands weeks after the UK government rejected a bid by North Yorkshire Council, the University of York, and Drax for an up to 1.2GW data center at the same site under the AI Growth Zone scheme.

Who's behind it?

Brookfield Head of AI Infrastructure Sikander Rashid said: "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," he said, adding the project preserves hundreds of jobs and creates direct and indirect roles across Yorkshire.

Radiant launched last November under the $10bn Brookfield Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure Fund (BAIIF), with plans to build and acquire up to $100bn of AI infrastructure.

What about the carbon question?

The low-carbon claims will draw scrutiny. In the rejected AI Growth Zone application, the applicants described the facility as the world's largest "carbon negative data center" — even though the plant is one of the UK's biggest emitters. Energy think tank Ember puts Drax's 2025 emissions at 14.1 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

Drax and Brookfield say they're committed to lasting local benefits, including a voluntary community fund developed with communities near the plant, separate from planning obligations and existing Drax initiatives.

How did we get here?

Rumors of a Drax data center first surfaced in November 2024. By February last year, the company was in talks with operators, citing "positive engagement with data center providers regarding the potential to co-locate a data center with biomass generation." It has since signed a ten-year corporate PPA with Global Switch to support that firm's UK operations.