The Global Centre of Rail Excellence (GCRE) has announced that several blue-chip organisations have submitted Expressions of Interest to develop energy and data centre assets on its 700-hectare site in South Wales. The plans involve repurposing a former opencast mine, with a site area comparable to Gibraltar, into a location for renewable energy sources (RES) and a data centre (DC).
GCRE has been seeking partners over recent months to integrate these assets alongside its rail project. Following the first stage of the selection process, GCRE Chief Executive Simon Jones noted strong interest from potential bidders. The process will now move into a second stage of dialogue to further develop proposals.
GCRE is being developed as an international facility for rail research and net-zero technology, with the aim of supporting rail and sustainable mobility innovation. The site is located 30km from Bridgend and 50km from Cardiff, within an area associated with the UK Government’s AI Growth Zone, where data centre development activity is also emerging.
The site includes infrastructure advantages for large-scale development, including access to 132kV and 400kV power lines, as well as planned high-quality fibre connectivity.
The project is intended to support both GCRE’s rail development plans and wider energy and digital infrastructure development in the region. South Wales has been identified as part of the UK’s evolving AI and energy infrastructure landscape, with associated potential for economic development and employment linked to rail and energy projects.
The EDCP competition runs alongside GCRE’s separate process to secure investment for the rail project.
