Drax unveils £20bn plans for new data centre – powered by burning wood

Energy company Drax has unveiled plans to build a new data centre at the site of its North Yorkshire power plant, which uses wood as fuel. The FTSE 250 firm’s biomass plant is predominantly powered by wood pellets, but also uses straw and sunflower pellets. The company said it intends to use surplus energy capacity at the plant to power the new facility, in a new partnership with AI infrastructure business Radiant. Drax said it hoped the total capacity of the data centre would exceed one gigawatt, with the first phase to deliver up to 100 megawatts by 2028 and the second phase to add an extra 500 megawatts by 2031. The potential investment, including semiconductor chips, could exceed £20bn, with an initial £2.5bn as part of the first phase of development. Boss Will Gardiner said the scheme would “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 conti