Drax plans £20bn AI data centre at its wood-burning North Yorkshire power station, which analysts call Britain's biggest carbon emitter
Drax shares jumped 8.5% to 877p on Tuesday, making the power company the biggest riser on the FTSE 250 after the £20bn data centre deal was announced.
Drax has secured £2.5bn in initial backing from Brookfield and Qatar's Qai for the first phase of the project, with total investment potentially topping £20bn including semiconductor chips. The data centre near Selby would deliver 100MW of capacity by early 2028, scaling to 500MW by 2031, with a 1GW-plus target beyond that.
Drax shares surged 8.5% to 877p on Tuesday, making the stock the FTSE 250's biggest riser.
Environmentalists warn the extra power demand will make hitting clean energy targets 'impossible'.
Drax's biomass plant already produces almost 5% of UK electricity — and is Britain's single largest CO2 emitter.
