Drax unveils plan for data centre at Selby power station

An vitality firm has mentioned its Yorkshire website will get a brand new knowledge centre to assist it “contribute to the expansion of AI”.Drax introduced plans to develop its energy station close to Selby with a brand new 100MW knowledge centre, which may very well be operational by 2027.A spokesperson mentioned the centre can be a part of Drax’s plans to allocate as much as £2bn in the direction of funding in versatile and renewable vitality.They added that additional particulars had been but to be finalised and no planning software had been submitted.Russ Mould, funding director at AJ Bell, mentioned Drax was taking advantage of the chance to profit from AI.”The corporate has unveiled proposals to repurpose present infrastructure and grid hyperlinks at its Yorkshire energy station to make its personal contribution to the expansion of AI,” he mentioned.”As soon as fuelled by the coal which was central to the commercial revolution, upgraded infrastructure will probably be utilised to run a knowledge centre as a part of the newest part of technological development.”The information got here as Drax gave a buying and selling replace saying it anticipated earnings to be on the “high finish” of market forecasts after a “sturdy” efficiency this 12 months.The fim mentioned buying and selling was boosted by the efficiency of its versatile technology, pellet manufacturing and biomass operations.It instructed shareholders that full-year adjusted earnings can be “across the high finish of consensus estimates” for 2025 after a constructive second half of the 12 months.Chief government Will Gardiner mentioned: “Aligned to the UK’s future vitality wants and underpinned by a robust stability sheet, good money technology, and a disciplined strategy to capital allocation, we’re working to maximise the worth of our present portfolio, whereas driving progress over the quick, medium and long run.”