Energy, Zero Carbon and Clean Growth

The area has an established and growing cluster of industrial expertise in clean energy and energy innovation.

Birchwood Park is home to much of Britain’s nuclear industry including National Nuclear Laboratories, Wood, Rolls Royce Nuclear, the Nuclear Innovation and Research Office and the HQ of Sellafield Ltd. The research, engineering and design expertise of these companies is at the heart of the next generation of nuclear power stations and the safe decommissioning of existing plants in the UK and around the world. Urenco, based in Capenhurst, produces 30% of the world’s enriched Uranium and in 2012 took over the decommissioning and storage operations previously undertaken at the site by Sellafield Limited on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.  

In 2015 Amec Foster Wheeler (now part of Wood) was selected to lead a project to set up a new high temperature facility in the UK for testing materials used in current and future nuclear reactors. Funded by a £2 million research grant from Government the facility, opened at Birchwood in 2016, will provide open access for research organisations to test materials for applications such as Generation IV nuclear fission, nuclear fusion and advanced gas turbines.

Cheshire and Warrington is leading the way in researching the implications for energy networks from the growing use of Electric Vehicles (EVs). By 2040 Government wants all new vehicles to produce zero carbon emissions and research projects such as ‘MyElectricAvenue’7 and ‘Electric Nation’8 (the world’s largest EV trial of its kind), led by Capenhurst-based EA Technology, aim to build an understanding of the potential impact that the increasing uptake of EVs will have on local electricity networks and look to develop technical solutions to smooth demand. 

Thornton Science Park is the chosen location for the UK’s new ‘earth observatory’ (Energy Security and Observation System for the Sub-Surface – ESIOS) funded by National Environment Research Council and British Geological Society.

Protos, on the south bank of the Manchester Ship canal near Ellesmere Port, is a new strategic energy hub which features as the only energy focussed development in the Government’s recently unveiled Northern Powerhouse Investment Opportunities Portfolio and could eventually attract £1.5 billion of investment and 13,000 jobs. The unique geography, geology and industrial mix within Cheshire and Warrington also opens up opportunities for developments in hydrogen (including hydrogen fuel cells) and geothermal heat networks. The area is already the location of some of the UK’s largest underground natural gas storage facilities, utilising former salt caverns.