COMMENT
Fiona Paterson
Project Development
Manager, East Ayrshire
CouncilW: east-ayrshire.gov.uk/nerdA low carbon future beckons
for Cumnock communities
The National Energy Research Demonstrator is
set to transform energy production, distribution
and storage in Ayrshire and beyond. It will
create a Centre of Excellence to research how
to harness existing and new renewable energy
technologies to produce and store energy in a
flexible energy grid.
Set around Cumnock and Doon Valley, this
£24.5m scheme, funded by the UK Government
and East Ayrshire Council as part of the Ayrshire
Growth Deal, will lead the way in demonstrating
how to build low carbon communities.
Fiona Paterson, project development
manager, East Ayrshire Council, explains
the project’s ambitions: “We will create the
energy system of the future, pooling research
and business knowledge in a purpose-built,
sustainable energy hub, to develop a new
way of providing energy. It will help reduce
household energy bills, tackle fuel poverty and
improve the efficiency of energy supply using a
highly integrated smart grid energy network.
“This £16m hub will be built to BREEAM and
Passivhaus standards, housing workshops and
laboratories for multi-disciplinary researchers
and PhD students.
“It will focus on five themes. Smart energy
IT, smart transport and public realm, smart
building systems, smart hydrogen and smart
earth geology and circular economy.
“Over the coming decade, we’ll run
demonstrator projects in conjunction with
Strathclyde University’s Energy Systems
Research Unit, the Energy Technology
Partnership, Scottish Power Energy Networks,
Scottish Enterprise, Scottish Towns Partnership,
British Geological Survey, and Scottish
Futures Trust.
“This will reduce the carbon emissions in the
area. It will act as a catalyst for economic growth
by attracting highly skilled jobs, encouraging
local energy business start-ups and offering
science and technology education to pupils and
students. Clearly the effects of this innovative
scheme will reach far beyond the boundaries of
East Ayrshire.”
REGIONAL REPORT: AYRSHIRE
82 INSIDER March 2020 http://www.insider.co.ukabout the flying – it’s about the engineering
and advanced manufacturing that creates
really high quality jobs for the area and
Scotland as a whole.”
He adds: “MRO is a really important
sector and a fast-growing sector, it’s not just
about the maintenance and repair operations
but also decommissioning of the aircraft and
doing that in a sustainable way.”
There are currently around 4,000 people
employed in the aerospace cluster in
Ayrshire, directly through major aerospace
companies, such as Spirit Aerosystems,
Chevron Aircraft Maintenance, BAE
Systems Regional Aircraft and Goodrich
Corporation but also through their suppliers
and linked businesses. The Growth Deal aim
is to double that number of jobs employed
in both aerospace and space as part of the
Ayrshire Deal programme.
Hodgson from East Ayrshire Council
says Prestwick’s ambitions on space do not
compete with those of Sutherland.
“One’s about horizontal launch and
one’s about vertical launch so they’re
not competing, they’re complementary
investments. We’re working with the same
design team and project managers as they
are in Sutherland to make sure we capture
the complementarity.”
The councils have stressed that they
want the benefits of the economic boosts
provided by the Growth Deal to be shared as
widely as possible. Leijser at South Ayrshire
Council says: “It’s really important for us to
strengthen the supply chain, to work with
local companies so that they can supply into
the aerospace sector. That’s around precisionengineering, advance manufacturing etc.”
Another part of the programme focusing
on manufacturing is for a manufacturing
centre of excellence in East Ayrshire
focusing largely on food and drink.
Hodgson at East Ayrshire Council says:
“We have additional investment in business
space in Moorfield [industrial estate in
Kilmarnock] that’s probably East Ayrshire’s
key site for industrial investment. There is
the Halo Project in Kilmarnock, that will be
investing in an enterprise and innovation
hub and office accommodation and that’s
already on site.”
Morrison Construction began work
in October as the main contractor in
developing the Halo’s enterprise and
innovation hub which is the first part of the
£63m brownfield urban regeneration project
led by entrepreneur Marie Macklin. The 23-
acre site was formerly the home of Johnnie
Walker whisky.
When completed at the start of 2021, it
will aim to maximise collaboration between
entrepreneurs experimenting, creating
and growing highly specialised digital and
cyber businesses. It will feature cutting edge
technology aiming to stimulate new workingPlans for a spaceport are based around the airport,WłVQRWMXVWDERXWĠ\LQJŋ
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Theo Leijser, South Ayrshire Council