Firm leading both the multi-billion pound HyNet hydrogen project and the £5bn Peak Cluster scheme, which aims to build a large pipeline through Wirral, pays out £2.5m in shareholder dividends. Tony McDonough reports
‘Low carbon’ energy projects firm Progressive Energy, which is leading the HyNet and Peak Cluster projects, pays out £2.5m in shareholder dividends.
Gloucestershire-based Progressive has posted its annual results for the 12 months to September 30, 2025, on Companies House. They show revenues falling to just over £3m from £6.2m in the previous year.
However, the company saw a significant turnaround in its margin. Pre-tax profits for the year came in at £2.1m against a pre-tax loss of £143,741 in the previous year.
In the report Progressive revealed it had paid out just over £2.5m in shareholder dividends. Its majority shareholder is another entity called Progressive Energy Holdings which itself has no named people with “significant control” of the business.
Progressive Energy is leading two controversial ‘low carbon’ energy projects in and around Wirral. They are the HyNet hydrogen production and carbon capture and storage project and Peak Cluster, another carbon capture and storage scheme.
HyNet, which comprises a consortium of businesses, will produce hydrogen for industrial use by burning natural gas at a facility being built at the Stanlow oil refinery in Ellesmere Ports.
Instead of being released into the atmosphere, the CO2 produced by the gas will be captured and stored in depleted gas fields in rock under Liverpool Bay. It is being backed by billions of pounds of Government cash and will likely be operational in 2028.
READ MORE: HyNet hydrogen & CCS… everything you need to know
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is a controversial method and some experts doubt it is achievable to the required standard at this scale and is merely a way to prolong the use of fossil fuels.
Even more controversial than HyNet is the £5bn Peak Cluster project, also being heavily backed by the Government. This will see the building of a 125-mile CCS pipeline to carry carbon dioxide from cement and lime producers in Derbyshire and Staffordshire.
Similar to HyNet, Peak Cluster will store the CO2 emissions under the Irish Sea. In Wirral there has been huge public opposition to the pipeline which campaigners claim will cause significant environmental damage to the peninsula’s rural landscape.
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However, at a public meeting in April, Peak Cluster chair and Progressive director David Parkin criticised what he called “challenging” misinformation driven by Facebook posts and AI.
“Social media is a very powerful agent. It is largely used for social good. We do have our concerns about it. It is proving reasonably challenging for us. I’ll be very blunt about that.”
If the Peak Cluster pipeline secures the go-ahead construction work will last from 2029 to 2032.