Our Story

HyNet came about as a solution to the momentous challenge to slash carbon dioxide emissions produced by industry, transporting of heavy goods, and the heating of our homes as we move towards the government’s target of Net Zero by 2050.

To do this, we recognised that low carbon energy sources must be deployed to facilitate all end uses. Therefore HyNet was made up of several different elements that would be able to provide infrastructure to produce, transport, and store low carbon hydrogen across the North West and North Wales.

We knew that we couldn’t do this on our own, decarbonisation and the overall energy transition requires extensive regional and industrial collaboration before any real progress can be made. Therefore we have over 40 organisations signed up to decarbonise through HyNet, and we have started on the road to the climate’s recovery, having run successful demonstrations at Pilkington Glass and Unilever to show how the switch over from natural gas to Hydrogen could work.

We know there’s a lot of work still to do, but being able to look our children in the eye and say we played an instrumental role in overcoming the greatest challenge of our time, is what drives us forward.

The Challenge

HyNet is a huge infrastructure project, all consisting of a number of separate projects, each managed by a member of the HyNet consortium. Each project partner is fully focused on using innovative approaches to approach new technology, with different partners aiming to share knowledge and to integrate each element of HyNet together.

Industrial collaboration is key, not only to the success of HyNet, but also in the transfer of knowledge and provision of a framework for the delivery of future carbon transport and storage networks across the UK.

We have, and continue to be, involved with industrial organisations and governing bodies, regional, energy bodies and educational institutions to facilitate the development of standards and more general transfer of knowledge in this new area of expertise.

Whilst we have already engaged with some areas of the supply chain we already engaged with the project, as HyNet progresses, this will become ever more important in the supply chain, including construction, material, and manufacturing industries.

Our Solution

HyNet will use low-carbon Hydrogen, produced in the North West region as a replacement for the fossil fuel that’s currently used to heat our homes and power our industries. For it to make a real difference to our energy system, it needs to be produced at scale, low cost, and with very low emissions.

HyNet has invested £40 million to develop the engineering, and show how the technology works and design the plan. Our partners are committed to delivering the HyNet infrastructure – hydrogen production, distribution and storage, carbon capture, transport and storage. We are also working with almost thirty regional industrials who are all focused on utilising HyNet as the centrepiece of their decarbonisation strategy.

This will allow us to deliver the infrastructure backbone to deliver low carbon hydrogen for flexible power generation and to provide a blend of hydrogen to heat people’s homes. The infrastructure already in place to facilitate fossil fuel production and storage can be directly repurposed for hydrogen.

HyNet will also bring huge benefits for the regional the UK economy, playing a key role in shaping the region’s future and supporting the Levelling Up agenda. We will deliver economy growth through job retention in manufacturing industries and job creation in the low carbon economy, retraining workers and preparing the supply chain to realise the global opportunity – positioning the region as a highly attractive location for inward investment. HyNet continues to meet the Government’s strategic ambition, delivering key aspects of the Ten Point Plan for a Green Industrial Revolution; producing 80% of the national target of 5GW of hydrogen, 100% of the national target for Carbon Capture capacity and a hydrogen town.

Want to find out more?

You can find out more about HyNet below.

https://hynet.co.uk/