UK power company Drax has finally unveiled its plans for a data center at its 2.6GW Drax Power Station in Selby, North Yorkshire, UK.

The company partnered with Brookfield and its UK-headquartered AI infrastructure platform, Radiant, to jointly develop, deliver, and operate up to a gigawatt of data center capacity at the power station.

The data center is expected to be built in phases, with phase one targeting up to 100MW and expected to be operational from Q1 2028. Phase two would increase the capacity to 500MW between 2028 and 2031, and phase three envisions additional capacity increases post-2031.

The project will be developed as part of a joint venture dubbed Brookfield-Qai AI. Brookfield has said it estimates total investment in the development could exceed £20 billion ($26.8bn), including an initial £2.5bn ($3.4bn) for the first phase.

The partners said the first phase will progress 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.”

The proposed site comprises 1,000 acres and 4GW of grid access, with 2.6GW of active dispatchable generation and cooling systems from the existing wood pellet plant.

According to Drax Group CEO Will Gardiner, the site is “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.

“Teaming up with Drax and Qai for this project represents a major opportunity for our AI infrastructure strategy,” said Brookfield Head of AI infrastructure, Sikander Rashid.

"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. In addition to preserving hundreds of jobs, this project will also create many direct and indirect jobs around the broader Yorkshire area."

The announcement follows shortly after the UK government rejected a bid by North Yorkshire Council, the University of York, and energy company Drax to develop an up to 1.2GW data center at the same site as part of the UK’s AI Growth Zone scheme.

Rumblings that Drax was planning a data center first arose in November 2024. Following this, in February of last year, 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.”

Since then, the company signed a ten-year corporate Power Purchase Agreement with Global Switch to support the firm's UK operations.

However, concerns have been raised about the proposed data center's low-carbon credentials. As part of the application for the AI Growth zone data center, the applicants described the facility as the world's largest “carbon negative data center,” even though the power plant itself is one of the UK's largest emitters.

According to data from energy think tank Ember, Drax emitted 14.1 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent in 2025.

Despite pushback, Drax and Brookfield have said they are committed to delivering lasting local benefits, including a voluntary community benefits fund developed in consultation with communities around the Drax Power Station site, separate from and in addition to any planning obligations and Drax’s existing community initiatives. The company said that community consultation on the plans will begin shortly, with the formal planning process following afterward.

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