A body representing 10 councils in south-east Wales has announced it is to buy the disused Aberthaw coal-fired power station in the Vale of Glamorgan.
Cardiff Capital Region, which was s et up as part of the £1.2bn City Deal part funded by the UK and Welsh governments and the councils themselves in 2017, has set aside £8m to buy the site from German energy firm RWE as part of a wider £36.4m funding package to demolish the power station, remediate it and re-develop it.*
The region says it wants to use the 489-acre site overlooking the Bristol Channel as a green energy hub - envisioning a cluster of green energy businesses, and a hydrogen plant linked to a renewable energy project. Today's announcement follows reports last year that a new commission would be set up to look again into building a barrage across the estuary.
