Government go-ahead for green energy plant could bring thousands of jobs to North West

The government's given the go-ahead for a multi-billion pound green energy project that could create two thousand jobs and attract thousands more to Cheshire.

The HyNet hydrogen production hub will be built at the Stanlow oil refinery, and be operational by 2028. It's owners EET Fuels are building a parallel hydrogen facility that will help decarbonise the site’s operations.

The project will capture carbon dioxide produced by industrial plants and store it permanently and safely in depleted gas fields in the Irish Sea

Energy company Eni plan to award around £2 billion in supply chain contracts for the backbone of the HyNet masterplan – its Liverpool Bay Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Project.

The government green light follows an announcement it made in February confirming HyNet will share £22bn of funding over a 25 year period with a similar project in the North East of England - Net Zero Teesside to make the UK “an early leader in two growing global sectors, CCUS and hydrogen”.

The government said the two projects will help remove over 8.5 million tonnes of carbon emissions each year – the equivalent of taking around 4 million cars off the road.

Construction of HyNet will now commence, putting spades in the ground and putting the region on track for operations to begin in 2028.

Announcing the agreement, Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: “This investment from our partnership with Eni is government working together with industry to kickstart growth and back engineers, welders and electricians through our mission to become a clean energy superpower.”

Eni say the the Liverpool Bay CCS project will operate “as the backbone of the HyNet Cluster” to transport carbon dioxide from capture plants across the North West of England and North Wales through new and repurposed infrastructure to safe and permanent storage in Eni’s depleted natural gas reservoirs, located under the seabed in Liverpool Bay.