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BusinessQuiet 9d · day 9

Drax strikes £20bn deal to build UK's largest AI datacentre at coal-biomass plant site

The FTSE 250 owner of Britain's most polluting power station will host a 1GW-plus AI datacentre with Brookfield and Radiant.

newest coverage 8d agosummary written 8d ago13 pieces57 likes & upvotes1 comments MastodonNewswiresGoogle News

What to know

  • Drax's North Yorkshire site, the UK's single largest carbon emitter by burning woody biomass, is pivoting toward hosting AI infrastructure as a new revenue source.
  • The £20bn deal with Brookfield and Radiant could create a datacentre exceeding 1 gigawatt, phased in from early 2028 with 100MW initially.
  • The move comes as the UK government plans to halve Drax's roughly £2m-a-day subsidies from 2027-2031 and limit its future power-generation role.
  • The deal highlights unresolved questions over how the UK's AI datacentre expansion will be powered given congested grid infrastructure and binding climate targets.

“supporting the north’s reindustrialisation and strengthening sovereign AI capability”

Will Gardiner, Drax chief executive · The Guardian ↗ · Nov 2

Will Gardiner Drax chief executiveDrax FTSE 250 owner of the UK's largest power plantBrookfield Infrastructure investor and deal partnerRadiant AI infrastructure platform and deal partnerUK government Regulator of Drax subsidies and datacentre policy

Drax strikes £20bn deal to build UK's largest AI datacentre at coal-biomass plant site
theguardian.com

How it unfolded 2 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts

Peak 10 pieces in two hours at Nov 3, 6 AM; 13 pieces over 9 days (7 articles · 6 posts) Nov 3, 2 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Google News 1Nov 3, 4 AM — 1 piece · 1 article — Newswires 1Nov 3, 6 AM — 10 pieces · 5 articles · 5 posts — Mastodon 6, Newswires 4Nov 3, 8 AM — quietNov 3, 10 AM — quietNov 3, 12 PM — quietNov 3, 2 PM — quietNov 3, 4 PM — quietNov 3, 6 PM — quietNov 3, 8 PM — quietNov 3, 10 PM — quietNov 4, 12 AM — quietNov 4, 2 AM — quietNov 4, 4 AM — quietNov 4, 6 AM — quietNov 4, 8 AM — quietNov 4, 10 AM — quietNov 4, 12 PM — quietNov 4, 2 PM — quietNov 4, 4 PM — quietNov 4, 6 PM — quietNov 4, 8 PM — quietNov 4, 10 PM — quietNov 5, 12 AM — quietNov 5, 2 AM — quietNov 5, 4 AM — quietNov 5, 6 AM — quietNov 5, 8 AM — quietNov 5, 10 AM — quietNov 5, 12 PM — quietNov 5, 2 PM — quietNov 5, 4 PM — quietNov 5, 6 PM — quietNov 5, 8 PM — quietNov 5, 10 PM — quietNov 6, 12 AM — quietNov 6, 2 AM — quietNov 6, 4 AM — quietNov 6, 6 AM — quietNov 6, 8 AM — quietNov 6, 10 AM — quietNov 6, 12 PM — quietNov 6, 2 PM — quietNov 6, 4 PM — quietNov 6, 6 PM — quietNov 6, 8 PM — quietNov 6, 10 PM — quietNov 7, 12 AM — quietNov 7, 2 AM — quietNov 7, 4 AM — quietNov 7, 6 AM — quietNov 7, 8 AM — quietNov 7, 10 AM — quietNov 7, 12 PM — quietNov 7, 2 PM — quietNov 7, 4 PM — quietNov 7, 6 PM — quietNov 7, 8 PM — quietNov 7, 10 PM — quietNov 8, 12 AM — quietNov 8, 2 AM — quietNov 8, 4 AM — quietNov 8, 6 AM — 1 piece · 1 post — Mastodon 1Nov 8, 8 AM — quietNov 8, 10 AM — quietNov 8, 12 PM — quietNov 8, 2 PM — quietNov 8, 4 PM — quietNov 8, 6 PM — quietNov 8, 8 PM — quietNov 8, 10 PM — quietNov 9, 12 AM — quietNov 9, 2 AM — quietNov 9, 4 AM — quietNov 9, 6 AM — quietNov 9, 8 AM — quietNov 9, 10 AM — quietNov 9, 12 PM — quietNov 9, 2 PM — quietNov 9, 4 PM — quietNov 9, 6 PM — quietNov 9, 8 PM — quietNov 9, 10 PM — quietYesterday, 12 AM — quietYesterday, 2 AM — quietYesterday, 4 AM — quietYesterday, 6 AM — quietYesterday, 8 AM — quietYesterday, 10 AM — quietYesterday, 12 PM — quietYesterday, 2 PM — quietYesterday, 4 PM — quietYesterday, 6 PM — quietYesterday, 8 PM — quietYesterday, 10 PM — quietToday, 12 AM — quietToday, 2 AM — quietToday, 4 AM — quietToday, 6 AM — quietToday, 8 AM — quietToday, 10 AM — quietToday, 12 PM — quietToday, 2 PM — quietToday, 4 PM — quietToday, 6 PM — quiet 1–2
Nov 4Nov 5Nov 6Nov 7Nov 8Nov 9yesterdaynow · 8:41 PM ET
  1. 2

    Drax shares jump 9% as analysts welcome the deal

    Equity analysts welcomed the news and Drax's market value climbed by almost 9% on the London Stock Exchange to nearly £3bn.

    “help secure the long-term future of the site and protect hundreds of jobs…”
    — Will Gardiner, Drax chief executive · source
    • riggbeck@mastodon.social

      After Jackdaw (and probably Rosebank), this is the next domino falling. # NewerLabour will keep the dirtiest technologies going to provide energy for data centres. Net Zero is being sacrificed to the Moloch of eternal growth (in small pieces so we don't notice). Won't be long before there's another U-turn, kicking the date even further down the…

      riggbeck@mastodon.socialMastodon8d agoview on Mastodon ↗
    1 more of the top 2 · 2 posts in this stretch
    • j2bryson@mastodon.social

      https://www. theguardian.com/business/2026/ nov/03/uk-drax-power-station-ai-datacentre?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

      j2bryson@mastodon.socialMastodon8d agoview on Mastodon ↗
    all of them →
  2. 1

    Drax, Brookfield and Radiant agree £20bn AI datacentre deal

    Drax's owner struck a deal with Brookfield and Radiant to build a datacentre with eventual capacity of more than 1 gigawatt on the Drax power station site, with phase one delivering up to 100MW from early 2028 and Drax providing land and grid access before potentially powering it directly by the early 2030s.

  3. background

    UK government publishes draft datacentre policy statement — A week before the Drax deal, the government published a draft national policy statement on datacentres, describing them as fundamental to the economy and pledging to ensure the country and host communities benefit from them.

Also covered reported alongside — the timeline has no entry for these yet

  1. 3 outlets UK’s most polluting power plant could power country’s largest AI datacentre

    first by Guardian Tech, 8d ago · also Guardian Environment, Guardian

What people are saying 0 voices from 0 sites · best of 2 · verbatim