Drax's planned North Yorkshire datacentre would burn 4.9 million tonnes of wood annually and produce nearly twice the yearly emissions from all Gatwick airport flights, according to an analysis by a campaign group.
The datacentre would rank among the dirtiest facilities of its type, campaigners contend. The facility represents a significant expansion of Drax's operations at its existing power station site in North Yorkshire.
Wood burning at this scale raises questions about the facility's carbon footprint and biomass sourcing. Drax currently operates as a power generation facility that uses biomass fuel. The proposed datacentre would require enormous quantities of wood to meet its energy demands.
Campaign groups have flagged the emissions comparison as particularly striking. Gatwick airport, one of the UK's busiest aviation hubs, produces lower total emissions annually than this single datacentre would generate through biomass burning.
The analysis highlights tensions between growing demand for datacentre capacity to support artificial intelligence and cloud computing services, and the carbon intensity of energy-hungry facilities relying on wood combustion. Datacentres typically require continuous power supplies, making their energy sources and efficiency critical to climate impact assessments.
Drax's choice to use biomass as fuel at the datacentre depends on claims that burning sustainably harvested wood constitutes carbon-neutral energy. However, critics argue that the volume of wood consumption and associated supply chain emissions undermine such characterizations.
The North Yorkshire proposal enters a broader debate about datacentre placement and energy sourcing across the UK. As companies expand computing infrastructure to support digital services and AI applications, facility operators face pressure to demonstrate lower-carbon operations.