Drax plans to co-locate biomass plant with 100MW data centre

Drax has set out plans to add a 100MW data centre at its power station near Selby, Yorkshire, positioning the project as part of its push to support the rising demand for AI and wider investment in flexible and renewable energy.

The energy company said the data centre could be operational by 2027, although it stressed that details are still being worked through and that no planning application has yet been submitted.

A spokesperson said the development would help the company “contribute to the growth of AI”, and would sit alongside Drax’s wider intention to allocate up to £2 billion towards investment in flexible and renewable energy. The spokesperson added that further details were yet to be finalised.

For Drax, the attraction is clear: data centres are power-hungry facilities, and operators are increasingly looking for sites with robust grid connections and the ability to secure large volumes of electricity. But the company is still in the early stages, and any timetable will depend on the planning route, technical design and the economics of building and operating the facility.

For data centre operators, siting near an established source of power is inevitably going to be very attractive. That aligns with the UK Government’s push for AI Growth Zones, intended to speed up the development of AI infrastructure by pairing sites with planning support and faster routes to securing power connections – such as North Wales and Culham Campus in Oxfordshire.

The Drax plant at Selby doesn’t come completely without controversy, however. A BBC Panorama report in 2022 claimed that some of the biomass that was being burnt to generate power came from environmentally important forests in Canada. The company denied any wrongdoing following the report, but the BBC followed up on its story in 2024 to claim that the power plant was still using rare forest wood. 

The plan comes amid continuing scrutiny of Drax’s biomass sourcing and shifting subsidy arrangements. It’s especially important since the Government signed a new deal with the company this year that capped the amount it would buy under the Contracts for Difference scheme, as well as imposing stricter sustainability rules. Those rules will require 100% of woody biomass to meet strengthened sustainability requirements, with enhanced monitoring/verification and audits.