‘Drilling into geotechnics’
Duncan Moore, EDITOR
30 March, 2026 By Greg Pitcher
Swansea Council has declared a “major step forward” with long-stalled plans for a tidal lagoon on its coast.
The local authority hailed a deal that will see clean power innovator Batri create a solar farm on a former landfill site as the first stage of developing a renewables and industrial hub in the city.
Developer Tidal Lagoon (Swansea Bay) secured planning consent in 2015 for an innovative power plant across Swansea Bay to harness tidal energy and generate 320MW of electricity.
However, the project stalled after losing the UK government’s support, and in 2022, the Court of Appeal upheld a ruling that its development consent order (DCO) had expired and was no longer valid.
Now Swansea Council has insisted that the Batri solar farm at Tir John close to the waterfront could spark new life into the tidal energy proposal.
Leader of the local authority Rob Stewart said: “The momentum is building, and the vision is very much alive. Our ambition is to become one of the leading renewable energy regions in Europe by creating a once-in-a-generation tidal lagoon in Swansea Bay.
“The plan for Tir John is a strategic first step to create part of the energy infrastructure that’s needed to allow the lagoon project’s tidal and land elements to proceed.”
Stewart said a “range” of other renewable energy technology projects would feature in a broader hub that would create “thousands of high-quality jobs” and help attract “long-term investment and sustainable growth”.
He added: “A tidal lagoon here would put the city on the world map for renewable energy and deliver clean power for decades.”
Batri said the Tir John solar farm would be delivered in three waves, with phase one already holding planning consent and a grid connection offer and expected to deliver around 3MW of solar capacity.
Chief operating officer at the company Stephen Hughes said: “This is an important moment because it is where the Swansea Project starts to become real on the ground.
“Tir John will generate renewable energy, but its role is bigger than that. It begins to create the energy base for the wider project – one that can support future industrial development in Swansea, including a battery facility that will create significant skilled jobs as later phases come forward. That is why this first step matters so much.”
The death knell for the approved tidal power project at the location was sounded by Conservative energy secretary Greg Clark in 2018, saying a review had found it would cost three times as much as nuclear per unit of electricity generated.
However, supporters of the scheme have refused to give up. Bridgend firm DST Innovations in 2021 outlined ambitions for a £1.7bn Blue Eden project in Swansea Bay, including a tidal lagoon, a 72,000m² floating solar array, a battery storage facility, a manufacturing plant, a data centre and a climate change research hub alongside waterfront homes.
Two years later, Wales’ first minister pledged new funds towards making the country a “world centre” for emerging tidal technology.
ESG carried out initial ground investigations over a decade ago to support the planning application for the initial Swansea Bay renewables plant. The developer would later contend that it had fulfilled the requirements of the DCO for the project by undertaking ground investigation and survey works in 2016, as well as further subsequent tasks.
But a judge found the DCO included its own definition of what commencing a project meant, and this had not been met before the consent expired on 30 June 2020.
In May 2020, the developer wrote to the government asking for a one-provision bill to extend the power of the DCO by a year but this was rejected.
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