Ellesmere Port will have a leading role in the country's green industrial future

An assurance has been given that Ellesmere Port will have a leading role to play in the country's green industrial future.

The pledge was made by a leading Government Minister in response to a question by Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Justin Madders about HyNet North West.

Based at Stanlow Refinery in Ellesmere Port, HyNet North West has been awarded £72 million in clean energy decarbonisation funding aimed at creating thousands of new jobs. The hydrogen and carbon capture storage project sets out to transform the North West region into the world’s first low carbon industrial cluster.  

Speaking in Parliament, Mr Madders said: "Ellesmere Port is home to the HyNet North West project and we were absolutely delighted to secure funding in the first round of Government support.

"However, there is concern that different levels of priority will be applied to the various hydrogen projects around the country when future funding is determined, so there is a risk of losing momentum."

Addressing Kwasi Kwarteng, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Mr Madders asked: "Will the Department look again at that proposal and ensure that in future funding rounds no project is held back?"

Mr Kwarteng replied: "We have considerable plans for hydrogen production. We have a hydrogen strategy coming forward and we have consulted on business models.

"I am sure people in Ellesmere Port, and the HyNet cluster generally, will have a big part to play in the development of hydrogen production in this country."

West Cheshire forms a central element of the North West Industrial Cluster which contains the largest concentration of advanced manufacturing and chemical production in the UK.

Under the plans, HyNet North West will begin to transform natural gas into low carbon hydrogen at the Essar Stanlow by 2025.

This clean energy source will be piped across the region to power industry, provide fuel for public transport and commercial vehicles, generate electricity and heat homes.

The project is a collaboration between locally-based partners Progressive Energy, Cadent, CF Fertilisers, Eni UK, Essar, Hanson, INOVYN (part of the INEOS Group) and the University of Chester.

By 2030 HyNet North West will have cut carbon dioxide emissions by up to 10 million tonnes a year. The intention is to create more than 6,000 new jobs and protect many existing manufacturing jobs in the region. In total HyNet North West will help to support 75,000 jobs across the country by 2035.

Cheshire West and Chester Council  (CWaC) aims to achieve ‘net zero’ greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. The council has also secured £5.8m from the  Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme which provides grant funding for energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation measures across the public sector, targeting non-domestic buildings in England, as well as supporting green investment initiatives.

In 2019 CWaC declared a Climate Emergency, recognising the need to act in line with world-wide agreement on climate change. Part of the council’s response includes the Carbon Management Plan which sets out how it will reduce emissions across council services over the next 10 years to be carbon neutral by 2030.

CWaC leader, Cllr Louise Gittins, said: "The HyNet North West project is comprehensively supported by regional leaders as a means to address carbon emissions, which are among the highest in the country.

"This exciting and world-leading project is essential for retaining our economically vital industry which employs over 340,000 highly skilled people in our region, the most of any part of the UK. At the same time it will create thousands of new green jobs here and across the country.”

David Parkin, director of progressive energy and HyNetNW project director said: "HyNet North West is a game-changing project of strategic importance. It is uniquely developed to be low-cost and deliverable and will begin decarbonising the North West by 2025."