Drax Group is exploring converting one of its former power stations in Selby, Yorkshire, into a data center.

According to its latest trading update, the company is weighing up the possibility of building an up to 1GW data center campus, which would repurpose infrastructure and grid links at one of its older coal-fired units.

"Drax is preparing a planning application to support the potential option for a first phase data centre of about 100MW on land identified at Drax Power Station," it said in a statement.

According to the company, it would likely seek outside partners for the project, which could come online after 2031. The company had previously announced its intention to build an initial 100MW data center site at the facility, which could come online as early as 2027.

Drax owns and operates the UK’s largest biomass plant located in Selby. The plant currently generates 2.6GW of electricity and recently signed an agreement with the UK government to keep the station running from 2027 to 2031. It currently accounts for approximately five percent of the UK’s electricity.

It converted its Selby power station to biomass in 2021 and plans to upgrade it with carbon capture, providing biomass energy with carbon capture and storage. However, the company has not been far from controversy with a 2022 BBC Panorama program, revealing that the plant consumes biomass harvested from environmentally important forests in Canada.

Reports first surfaced that Drax was looking at powering data center sites last November. In February, it was reported that it was in discussions with data center operators about a potential supply agreement, noting that it had received “positive engagement with data center providers regarding the potential to co-locate a data center with biomass generation.”