Britain’s most polluting power plant could soon power the country’s largest datacentre under a £20bn deal to build AI infrastructure on the site of the Drax power plant in North Yorkshire.

The power plant’s FTSE 250 owner has struck a deal with the infrastructure investor Brookfield and ⁠and the AI infrastructure platform Radiant to develop a datacentre with an eventual capacity of more than 1 gigawatt that could begin operations by early 2028.

In the initial phase, Drax will provide the datacentre project with land and access to the national power grid through existing connections on the site, but it hopes to begin powering the datacentre directly by the early 2030s.

Drax said the development could attract more than £20bn ($26.8bn) in investment and represent “the next chapter” for the former power plant after ministers signalled plans to limit its power generation in the future.

The Drax chief executive, Will Gardiner, said the project would “help secure the long-term future of the site and protect…