Berkeley site hosts Polish firm to progress international nuclear energy collaboration

This visit follows the signing of an international collaboration agreement in March of this year between ŚGP Industria S.A (Industria), the Polish Government development agency with responsibility for delivering net zero carbon energy solutions in the Central Hydrogen Valley, and Chiltern Vital Group (CVG), which is in the process of acquiring the SGS Berkeley Science & Technology Park site.

Industria has recently been given formal consent by the Polish Government to apply for licences to build, own and operate the first two Rolls-Royce SMRs in Poland.

The plans will require Industria to fast track the education and training of the SMR nuclear and related technology workforce in Poland. The international collaboration agreement between Industria and CVG envisages that the Polish workforce training would initially take place on the SGS Berkeley Science & Technology Park site, which CVG and its project partners, including Western Gateway, Bristol University and Rolls-Royce SMR, are planning to redevelop as a national and international net zero carbon and nuclear education, training and R&D Campus.

The meeting took place at the Berkeley Science & Technology Park in Stroud, Gloucestershire with representatives from the Western Gateway partnership, CVG, Bristol University and SGS College.

The site is a key part of the Western Gateway Severn Edge Low Carbon Energy Campus. Bringing together sites in Oldbury and Berkeley, ‘Severn Edge’ has seen over £100m of investment in recent months from the UK Government’s Great British Nuclear and CVG leading a collaboration of private sector firms.

James Cooke, Deputy Director of the Western Gateway, said: “Our partnership has long been championing the potential of our Severn Edge sites to deliver low carbon energy and high-quality jobs and skills for our communities. Sitting at the heart of our geographical area, the Berkeley and Oldbury sites have the potential to become an economic, high technology regional and national catalyst.

“We are delighted to welcome Industria to the Berkeley site and show them the potential our region has to offer. National and international interest in our Severn Edge sites continues to grow as interest in the nuclear and related technology sectors enjoys a renaissance.”

Chris Turner, CEO of Chiltern Vital Group said: “Given the expected forthcoming GBN announcement of UK Government investment in approved SMR technologies, we are already seeing increased international investment interest in Berkeley. This is also manifesting itself in the growing interest of global AI/hyper data centre operators in entering into competitively priced, long term zero carbon energy supply offtake agreements.

“While an important part of the collaboration with Industria will focus on workforce education and training, of equal importance will be the attraction of multi-billion-pound inward investment in nuclear, AI and related technologies to Berkeley and Oldbury and to the Central Hydrogen Valley of Poland.”

Szczepan Ruman, CEO of Industria said: “We are very thankful for the opportunity to visit Berkeley and see the Severn Edge Low Carbon Energy Park. After receiving the formal approval from the Government to move ahead with our planned investment in two RR SMR units in Central Hydrogen Valley, we progress with the creation of Zero Emission Investment Zone in central Poland as well as with the investment in a new office park that would include a training centre for future SMR sector needs. Learning from the experiences of Berkeley Science & Technology Park helps us to better shape our own projects and achieve effects of scale by cooperation with Berkeley in the future.”

More information about the Severn Edge Low Carbon Energy Campus is available on the Western Gateway website.