Baglan Bay

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baglan Bay is a part of the Swansea Bay coastline and a district and community of Neath Port Talbot county borough, South Wales. The area currently has no inhabitants and is entirely occupied by industrial and commercial developments.

1 History
2 Baglan Energy Park
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

In the 19th century, coal, tinplate and pottery were exported from Baglan Pill.^[1] In 1963 BP opened a petrochemical plant at Baglan Bay, partly to benefit from the proximity of the BP Oil Refinery at Llandarcy, which could supply feedstocks. By 1968, BP Baglan Bay was one of the largest petrochemical sites in Europe, employing 2500 workers at its peak in 1974. However, market changes led to the gradual closure of the facility between 1994 and 2004.^[2]

[edit] Baglan Energy Park

Following the final closure of BP's Baglan Bay plant in 2004, the site was re-developed by BP, the Welsh Development Agency (WDA) and Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council. Baglan Bay power station, a 500 MW combined cycle gas turbine power plant operated by GE Power Systems was built and the remainder of the land was earmarked for a 180-acre business park, the Baglan Energy Park. Businesses locating at the park benefit from low cost electrical energy from the power station.^[3] Several plots are now developed with tenants or with speculative office and industrial premises available to let. A paper mill, Intertissue, part of the Italian paper tissue manufacturing company Sofidel Group, was completed in September 2006. The Energy Park is also home to the Sustainable Technologies Technium, part of a network of business incubation centres across Wales;^[4] Hi-Lex Cable System Ltd; Remploy Ltd; Montagne Jeunesse;^[5] and headquarters for Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council's service response centre. ^[6] New facilities are under construction for Shield Medicare Ltd (a subsidiary of US sanitation supply company Ecolab) and the University of Glamorgan’s Hydrogen research and demonstration centre.^[7]