We always had a clear vision for what we wanted Protos to be - a strategic hub for resource management. Flash forward to today, and whether that's energy, waste, hydrogen or CO2, Protos is about getting the most value from our planet's resources and using them in the most sustainable way.
This philosophy has been the driving force behind the project from day one and while it has evolved to adapt to local, regional, national and global drivers the fundamental ethos remains the same.
Protos was granted outline planning consent in 2009 for industrial uses including an Energy from Waste facility and environmental technologies including resource recovery, later followed by a biomass facility. The first facility to get detailed planning consent was the biomass facility that started construction in 2015. At the same time, we started work on the Phase One infrastructure works. This kick-started activity at Protos which hasn’t stopped since!
Keeping local people informed about what’s happening at Protos has always been important to us, so ahead of the start of construction we set up the Protos Community Forum. Meeting four times a year it provides a vital link between us and the local community. In 2016, we also launched the Protos Community Benefit Fund which supports local causes and to date has donated £260,000.
The growing regional significance of Protos was recognised in 2016 when we became the only energy focused project in the Government’s Northern Powerhouse Investment Portfolio. The following year Protos was officially launched by the Minister for the Northern Powerhouse.
2019 was a busy year with the biomass facility becoming fully operational. The 22MW facility uses commercial waste wood which would otherwise go to landfill, to produce energy for over 42,500 homes. Later that year planning consent was granted for a £150m Bio-Substitute Natural Gas plant and our nature areas - Snipe Haven and Goldfinch Meadows – were officially opened at an event with Elton Primary School.
At Protos we bring like-minded companies together. With the global problem of plastic waste rising up the agenda, we decided to review our consented plastic village scheme and brought forward proposals to meet the scale of the challenge. Fast forward a couple of years and we got approval to build the UK’s first plastic-to-hydrogen facility using pioneering Powerhouse Energy technology. This was followed in 2021 with consent for Enviroo’s PET (polyethylene terephthalate) recycling facility, with our concept for the UK’s first Plastic Park given the green light in September 2022Clustering a variety of recycling and recovery technologies it will help make the best use of a range of plastic materials alongside a hydrogen refuelling station.
Now we're well into 2023, we can take a look back on 2022 as another eventful year. Alongside the Plastic Park we’ve also ventured into carbon capture. We launched our concept for a local CO2 network at Protos to capture carbon from energy generators and surrounding businesses – a local branch to link into the nearby regional HyNet pipeline. The biomass facility at Protos has received government funding to develop a carbon capture demonstration project, designed to scale carbon capture technology. Most recently we announced plans to work in partnership with Progressive Energy to explore developing new hydrogen and CO2 infrastructure projects at Protos. Cheshire Green Hydrogen was the first to be revealed, a proposed 28MW project to use renewable electricity from Foresight’s Frodsham wind farm to generate low carbon hydrogen.
While Protos has evolved, our overarching vision has stayed strong and determined the type of operators we’ve brought on board. We could have filled the development ten times over but we waited for the right occupiers that fit the Protos ethos.
So, what’s next?
2023 will be a year of activity and further progress. We’ll be plugged into the conversations and developments around opportunities for Carbon Capture, Usage and Storage (CCUS) in the UK – with more detail on the regulatory framework expected in the coming 12 months. This will help us refine how Protos could be part of the North West’s CCUS network and take steps to make it a reality.
We’ll also be further developing our joint projects with Progressive Energy in more detail, including carbon capture and hydrogen infrastructure at Protos.
More widely, Cheshire West and Chester Council are working closely partners to put Ellesmere Port on the map as an excellent place to live and do business, with an abundance of skilled jobs and opportunities on the doorstep. We’ll be fully supporting that push, demonstrating how the area will continue to be one of the best locations for inward investment.