South West · England
Cornwall & Plymouth
Space communications, marine energy and lithium, in the most beautiful place on this list.
Proposed by UKIZ · independent · not a government designation
The place
The far South West has an unusual set of assets: a satellite communications station with decades of deep-space heritage, marine energy test infrastructure in open Atlantic water, geothermal and lithium extraction projects, and Plymouth's marine science and naval engineering base.
It is also the part of Britain people spend their whole lives trying to move to, with the constraint that the economy is smaller and the housing market is distorted by second homes.
- Atlantic coast on both sides of a narrow peninsula
- Satellite ground station heritage at Goonhilly
- Marine energy testing in real ocean conditions
- A naval city with serious marine science
- Seasonal economy and second-home pressure
Why Cornwall & Plymouth?
Space communications, marine energy and lithium, in the most beautiful place on this list.
- Satellite communications and deep-space ground station capability at Goonhilly.
- Marine and offshore renewable energy testing in open Atlantic conditions.
- Geothermal energy and lithium extraction projects in the granite.
- Marine science and naval engineering concentrated in Plymouth.
- Coast, moor and light that no other UK cluster can offer.
The regional economy is small and seasonal, transport connections are long, and housing affordability is badly affected by second homes and holiday lets.
What's happening here
Britain is building, and a lot of it is here.
Each item below is a real programme, institution or development with a named source. UKIZ does not publish claims it cannot point at.
Goonhilly provides deep-space communications services from Cornwall
The station's antennas support satellite and deep-space missions from the Lizard peninsula.
Goonhilly Earth Station ↗
What this place is good at
Strengths, from the canonical record.
- Marine science and autonomous vessels
- Earth observation and satellite applications
- Geothermal energy and critical minerals
- Aquaculture and blue economy research
- Space
- Clean Energy
- Robotics & Autonomous Systems
- Advanced Materials
- AgriTech & FoodTech
- Digital Technologies
UKRI and government publish facility and programme data covering marine and space capability in the region.