Drax: Selby Expansion

Drax Power Station

Planned

Future facility in planning stage

Leeds

Metro
England

Country
United Kingdom

Country
Western Europe

Region
Europe

Region
EMEA

Region

Drax: Selby Expansion

Site: Drax: Selby Campus

Drax Group is set to transform its historic Selby Power Station in North Yorkshire into a massive digital infrastructure hub, leveraging legacy infrastructure to meet the booming power demands of artificial intelligence. The company is currently preparing a planning application for an initial phase that could be operational as early as 2027, with long-term ambitions to expand the site to over 1 gigawatt (GW).

By repurposing the land, cooling systems, and high-voltage grid connections from its former coal-fired operations, Drax can bypass the years-long queues for new electricity connections that typically stall such projects. This pivot is a cornerstone of Drax’s strategy to reinvest up to £2 billion into growth projects through 2031, positioning the energy giant as a key "infrastructure partner" for global tech developers seeking reliable, large-scale power in the UK.

The proposed data center will initially use the national grid, with the potential to switch to Drax’s on-site power in later phases, pending regulatory approval.

Map and Nearby Locations:

Drax Power Station

Drax Group Sites

Nearby Facilities

Sites within 15 miles of Drax: Selby Expansion

Distance	Site	About
0.45 miles	Drax: Selby Campus	Drax Group is set to transform its historic Selby Power Station in North Yorkshire into a massive digital infrastructure hub, leveraging legacy infrastructure to meet the booming power demands of artificial intelligence.
5.90 miles	Hyperscale Data Center Request Dataset	Microsoft is proposing to develop a new UK data center campus on the site of a decommissioned power station in Eggborough, North Yorkshire. Microsoft aims to build two two-story data centers on part of the former Eggborough power station.
15.38 miles	Simulant: York	Located in the heart of York at Popeshead Court, the Simulant Data Center is a specialized, regional facility operated by Simulant Systems Ltd.
16.86 miles	nLighten Leeds (Wakefield)
16.86 miles	Deep Green: York DG02	Deep Green is building a data center in York, United Kingdom. The facility, known as DG02, is a modular data center located at the Monks Cross Leisure Park in Huntington.
17.18 miles	Node4: Leeds
17.37 miles	Bytemark YO26
17.37 miles	iomart: DC11 York	The iomart DC11 York data center became part of the iomart network in September 2018 through the acquisition of the York-based hosting provider Bytemark.
19.82 miles	C.C.S. DC14 - Leeds
19.99 miles	Virgin Media Leeds (Temple House)

Drax: Selby Expansion Data Center Photos (See all)

Operating Company

Drax Group is a renewable energy company engaged in renewable power generation, the production of sustainable biomass and the sale of renewable electricity to businesses.

Drax operates a generation portfolio of sustainable biomass, hydro-electric and pumped hydro storage assets across four sites in England and Scotland. It is the UK’s largest source of renewable electricity. The company also operates a global bioenergy supply business with manufacturing facilities at 13 sites in the United States and Canada, producing compressed wood pellets for its own use and for customers in Europe and Asia.

The Group employs 3,400 people in the UK and North America.

Enabling a zero carbon, lower cost energy future is Drax Group’s purpose and in 2019, it announced a world-leading ambition to be carbon negative by 2030, using Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) technology to remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere at scale whilst delivering reliable renewable electricity.

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