Energy project to diversify economy discussed in Cumberland

A west Cumbrian ‘community focussed’ energy project will be discussed at a meeting in Workington next week.

Members of Cumberland Council’s nuclear issues board are due to meet at Allerdale House on Monday (March 23) where they will consider the Pioneer Park project.

According to the report the purpose is to diversify the West Cumbrian economy and provide a wide range of job opportunities to all elements of our community for the long-term future. It states: “We will be using the power generated at Pioneer Park to attract inward investment, as opposed to providing power to the national grid.”

The report states that BEC launched the Pioneer Park Prospectus and the initial market engagement process in early August, with the market engagement being successfully completed in late October, following discussions with more than 40 interested parties.

According to the report these organisations included:

The report concludes that there is significant market interest in Pioneer Park and it adds: “Given the constraints of the land available, only Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) can deliver the power that will be required to attract inward investment to our community and diversify the economy.

“Small pockets of renewables (wind/solar PV) may be feasible on land that is unsuitable for SMR construction.

“Given the geographical and infrastructure constraints of West Cumbria, a digital technology-based economy is preferrable and more likely to succeed than a large scale clean industrial (hydrogen or sustainable aviation fuel generation) based economy (though there is potential for a single mid-range industrial facility alongside the data-led economy).

“The scale of land that has been designated in EN6 for new nuclear power generation and is being offered by the NDA for Pioneer Park, is sufficient to host three or more of most SMRs plus large-scale data centres.”

According to the report the shape of the land currently being offered is restrictive to development and it states: “This will be addressed through the masterplan process.

“There is significant market interest in the prospect of a nuclear-powered AI Growth Zone and data/technology led economic diversification in Cumberland.

“All organisations that BEC engaged with in the digital technology sector have unanimously recommended an interim solution to power early data centre deployment ahead of the construction and operation of SMRs and larger scale data centre deployment.

“Given the capacity limitations of the local grid, there will need to be a careful balance between generating sufficient energy to attract inward investment and over generation. This will influence the SMR technology selection.

“There are very few credible developers in the market that are close to being funded. This is our biggest risk to delivery. As the first of a kind nuclear powered AI Growth Zone, we can transform the Pioneer Park project into a product that is scalable and exportable for the wider UK economy.

“The consistent message from SMR vendors and developers is that the project timescale to the start of reactor operations will be in the order of 10 years.

“While we will be aiming for up to 1Gw generating capacity, BEC is holding constructive discussions with a micro-reactor vendor that may give us an opportunity for smaller scale SMR and data centre deployment on an earlier timescale.”