Drax CEO: £20bn data centre plan is transformational opportunity for Yorkshire
Our power stations have been helping drive the UK’s economy for nearly a century. Throughout wars, industrial change and decarbonisation, we are proud of our long-term role meeting the needs of the country and keeping the lights on for millions of homes and businesses.
In the face of global turbulence, the UK has delivered hard-won growth, but the question facing the country is how to maintain and accelerate this. At the Budget the Chancellor was crystal clear, economic growth is the route to higher wages and stronger public services.
Increasing the size of the country’s economy and putting more money into people’s pockets is not easy and it requires compromise. But when we have opportunities to deliver growth we should lean into them and I strongly believe part of the solution is reindustrialisation through the delivery of large-scale catalytic infrastructure.
What that means is backing projects that can attract billions of pounds in capital during construction to create operational sites which catalyse growth and other benefits, including local employment and social programmes. Critically, the ones that do not depend on the public purse for delivery, but may need other forms of help, should be prioritised.
Our new partnership with Brookfield, Radiant and Qai, including a potential investment of £20bn, to create large-scale AI data centre capacity at Drax Power Station could be one of these transformational opportunities.
The backing of Treasury Minister Reynolds shows that the Government is determined to drive a new age of British reindustrialisation, create good jobs and deliver growth and backs Yorkshire to create large-scale catalytic infrastructure.
Business Minister McDonald has also set out that the Government wants this country to be the best place in the world to invest in digital infrastructure. And to do that we need data centres. Similarly, households and businesses need them too, there has been a stratospheric increase in the use of LLMs at both home and at work and this is only likely to continue.
Data centres require power, grid connections and land to be developed quickly and begin operating. Drax Power Station is a long-established industrial site and has all of this in place. Delivering AI Infrastructure at the Yorkshire site, growing from up to 100MW to potentially a much larger one, would be a powerful example of the North not simply consuming AI products, but helping define them.
This project could be one of the largest investments ever into North Yorkshire and would be a totemic example of reindustrialisation and this Government’s commitment to economic growth. Drax, Radiant, Brookfield and Qai want it to work for local people, we want to maximise regional investment and jobs while minimising the impacts of development.
And our initial assessment is that this project aligns with the Government’s Data Centre Covenant criteria, supporting energy security, delivering local community benefits, meeting environmental standards, enabling reindustrialisation and strengthening the UK’s access to secure infrastructure
We acknowledge that large-scale projects can be controversial. Consequently, local people and those beyond will have questions about our plans. My commitment to them is that we will listen to, consider and respond to legitimate concerns and we expect to put in place a community benefit fund to support the local area too. But we will also balance that alongside our strategic goal of delivering this economic catalyst.
We know the Government will have thought long and hard about this project, but their backing of this investment shows they are fundamentally serious about taking the opportunities in front of them to support projects that deliver reindustrialisation and create economic growth for us all.
The UK is not the only possible destination for capital projects like this, others are competing for the same money. What gives investors confidence is projects being deployed quickly, and if we can do that in North Yorkshire we could see more international backing for other sites across the country accelerating growth further.
For us now the challenge is to take this opportunity forward at pace and work with Government and regulators to overcome barriers and deliver lasting economic success for the region and the UK. Aligning the connection date with the needs of a customer will be a critical part of this. The technical solution is not onerous, it can be delivered with the right people working together at speed. We’re already engaging closely with NESO on this and hope they recognise the strategic importance of this investment and work with us to deliver it.
Will Gardiner is CEO Drax Group.