nuclear-news

Warning that UK’s Hinkley nuclear power will be unaffordable

Ineos boss says Hinkley nuclear power too expensive, BBC News 15 Dec 13, Power from the new Hinkley C nuclear generator will be too expensive, the boss of one of the UK’s biggest energy consumers has warned.

Jim Ratcliffe, whose company Ineos owns the Grangemouth plant in Scotland, told the BBC that UK manufacturers would find the price unaffordable.

The government has guaranteed a price of £92.50 per megawatt hour (Mwh). Mr Ratcliffe said Ineos recently agreed a deal for nuclear power in France at 45 euros (£37.94) Mwh.

The government has guaranteed that the new Hinkley station, being development by France’s EdF and backed by Chinese investors, can charge the £92.50 minimum price for 35 years.

“Forget it,” Mr Ratcliffe said in an interview with the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston.

The existing Hinkley station currently produces about 1% of the UK’s total energy, but this is expected to rise to 7% once expansion of the Somerset plant is complete in 2023.

Ministers and EdF were in talks for more than a year about the minimum price the company will be paid for electricity produced at the site, which the government estimates will cost £16bn to build.

In the end, the government guaranteed the group a price for electricity in 2023 at twice the current level of wholesale prices……..http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25390456

December 16, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, UK