Plans for 12 MW data centre on derelict site
Lewis Smith, Local Democracy Reporter
A pre-planning application has been submitted to build a new 12 MW data centre close to the M4 motorway.
If approved the facility would be located at a site known as Tyn-y-Caeau based to the west of the A48 Margam Road, near Port Talbot on a section of the road which runs between Junction 38 of the motorway.
The site is approximately 1.3 hectares in size and currently accommodates a derelict complex of buildings including a dwelling house and detached guest accommodation.
The area also lies within two kilometres of several nationally or internationally
environmentally important sites such as Eglwys Nunydd Reservoir as well as three designated wildlife sites.
A data centre is a specialised facility that stores and processes data for company’s through computing and storage resources.
The proposed development could eventually include main data halls and equipment, back-up generators, a delivery bay and storage, along with associated offices and meeting rooms.
It would also contain parking for up to 15 cars if eventually given the go-ahead by the council’s planning authority, along with other supporting infrastructure and landscaping.
Planning developers have now submitted a request for a screening opinion which would decide if the application should be subjected to an environmental impact assessment before a full planning application is handed in to the local authority.
The report read: “This request for an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Screening Opinion is provided for the reference of the Local Planning Authority, to determine whether an EIA is required for the proposed development.
“The request is made in respect of a development proposal by Welsh Bio-Enterprise (WBE).”
The report added that a “comprehensive planning application” for the data centre is now being developed for the proposal, and will include a “holistic consideration of the environmental effects of the project.”
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How will it be powered? How will it manage its cooling requirements. What will power the backup generators?
Probably, powered by the national grid.
Cooled using water mostly collected on site and stored in tanks underground / ponds and then treated onsite.
It will have UPS battery backups for immediate loss and then giant diesel generators take over once they’ve started up…. Probably.
“It would also contain parking for up to 15 cars”
That is the hilarious thing about these things. They are amazing for the economy when they are being built providing high paid work to the construction industry.
But once they are built they are just a tumor using all the land, electricity and water to provide about 10 jobs for admin and maintenance on a 1.3 hectare site. All the high paid technical stuff is done remotely.
This is fair, but there are indirect benefits. The council should get decent business rates and may be able to use this development as an anchor within a larger business or technology park development that benefits from upgraded energy and network connectivity helping to kick start a tech cluster with real high value jobs.
Have you thought it’s not just about the operations, it enables so many other jobs to function. By building we are also saving jobs!
Wherever they have been built data centres have proved a massive drain on local water and electricity supplies (while the number of staff required to maintain them once they are operational is tiny). And is no accident that Wales (with the connivance of the uk govt) is presently being earmarked to host a multitude of such centres – once again Wales’ natural resources are being ruthlessly exploited for private profits (in some cases by giant tech companies on the other side of the world). Wales new plaid cymru govt must do whatever it can to prevent the spread of these… Read more »
80% of uk data centre capacity are in and around London so that argument doesn’t hold. Like everything its better to place near where the business is. Plus London has much better fibre connectivity than Wales.
The vast majority of workloads don’t need to be in the same city. And connectivity in south Wales is exceptional which is why Vantage run Europe’s largest data centre campus here.
Nothing youve said there changes the reality behind data centres – they devour local water and energy supplies and if we’re not careful Ireland’s grim experience with data centres will be replicated here in Wales
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/2026/06/03/irelands-data-centre-strain-a-cautionary-tale-for-rest-of-world-un-says/
The grid is UK wide so from an energy perspective it makes no difference whether it’s here or somewhere else. On water data centres are increasingly moving to closed loop systems. That would be a sensible question to ask about this development.
Cobblers – barely a day goes by without a report of one of these water devouring energy sapping monstrosities being planned for somewhere in Wales.
As of last year 1048mw of it power in London (exc. SE) Vs 154 in wales. Add in south east and it’s massively more.
It’s not a surprise that Wales has low levels of productivity when we seem to dislike the modern tools needed for high value jobs
High-value jobs?! Where are they? Wales has low levels of productivity because England and this kind of nonsense are constantly exploiting us of our resources. Like they did with coal and like they did with copper and steel previously. What we need is investment in people, not data centres or robots or A.i to help us write emails we can already write.