Drax considering using Selby biomass generators to power data centre

The Government recently agreed a bridging deal with Drax, granting financial support to keep the power station running from 2027 to 2031.

This cut its annual subsidies in half, from £950m to £470m, and the Selby plant will go from running about two-thirds of the time to only operating when renewable energy is low.

From 2031, Drax hopes to have Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) installed linking to two of the four generating units at the Selby site.

The company says this would remove carbon from the atmosphere while producing secure renewable power, and is currently in negotiations with the Government around funding support.

Last year, Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves announced multi-billion pound carbon capture and storage projects in Teesside and Merseyside.

If this plan goes ahead, this would leave the other two generating units open, and the company is considering using them to power a huge data centre.

In its last trading update, Drax said: “The growing demand for 24/7 power to meet the needs of data centres represents a potential opportunity for generators like Drax.

“Drax has received positive engagement with data centre providers in relation to the potential to co-locate a data centre with biomass generation and Drax continues to explore such opportunities.”

The company is set to publish its annual report and accounts on Thursday, which is expected to give more detail about potential data centre proposals.

Biomass as a clean energy source, which involves the burning of wood pellets, has long been under dispute and successives governments have faced calls to end financial support for companies such as Drax.

However, The Yorkshire Post understands that plans for a data centre could be palatable to Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves given the huge energy requirements of powering artificial intelligence (AI) going forward.

The Government has made AI one of its key areas for economic growth, and has significantly reduced planning regulations around data centres.

In a speech, last month Sir Keir said: “This is a government that backs the builders, so if you are looking at where to build your data centres we will speed up planning permission.

“If you need better access to power – and we all know how big a challenge that is - we’ll get you those grid connections at speed.”

At the international investment summit last year Blackstone confirmed a £10bn plan to build one of the largest data centres in Europe near Blyth, Northumberland.

Given the power produced from the Selby plant currently, a data centre at the North Yorkshire site could potentially rival this.