London / Ekibastuz, 4 November, . Britain’s Drax power station could become the country’s largest data centre for artificial intelligence under a 20-billion-pound (27-billion-dollar) agreement with the investor Brookfield and the platform Radiant, The Guardian reported.
The first phase, of up to 100 MW, is due to start in the first quarter of 2028, with eventual capacity of more than 1 GW. Drax will provide land and connection to the national grid and hopes to supply electricity to the data centre directly by the early 2030s. The station generates almost 5% of Britain’s electricity by burning wood pellets, and the government has promised to reduce its role in generation; chief executive Will Gardiner called the project “the next chapter” for the site.
Kazakhstan is building a similar cluster near Ekibastuz. As Kazakhstanskaya Pravda reported after the visit of NVIDIA’s chief executive, the 215 MW of the first phase of Data Center Valley have already been reserved, the first 50 MW data centre is due to start in the second quarter of 2027, and the US company Firebird has received a US export licence for 45,000 NVIDIA Grace Blackwell accelerators, with launch planned for the third quarter of 2027.
What it means: Old power stations are becoming sites for AI because they have something to offer — land, a grid connection and their own generation — and coal-powered Ekibastuz is taking the same route.
Who benefits: Power station owners, who find a new source of income, and AI developers, who need cheap capacity; the environmental cost of such energy remains disputed in Britain too.
Background: According to NVIDIA, Kazakhtelecom has already installed 400 H200 and 480 B300 accelerators in Astana and Almaty.
