By GCR Staff0 CommentsThe UK government said today it would proceed with the country’s first new nuclear power station for a generation, to be built and operated by a French-Chinese consortium at Hinkley Point in Somerset.
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The Guardian reported that May had concerns about China’s involvement in critical infrastructure and whether the project was cost effective.
British Secretary of State for Energy Greg Clark said the government will introduce measures to ensure the power plant can’t change hands without its consent.
Ministers said the agreement “in principle” with EDF means the Government will be able to prevent the sale of the French firm’s controlling stake before completion of construction, without the prior notification and agreement of ministers.
The project will now go ahead under the condition that EDF will be banned from selling its controlling stake in the project prior to completion of construction without United Kingdom government approval.
EDF, China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) – the project’s state-backed Chinese investor – and business lobby groups welcomed the decision to proceed.
Hinkley Point would produce around seven per cent of the UK’s energy while Sizewell and Bradwell would provide a further 12 per cent between them, potentially giving the Chinese involvement in almost one-fifth of the country’s electricity generation.
The decision was postponed by the government in July. It also threw a spotlight on Britain’s trade relations with China and other big economies outside Europe.
The UK government has given the green light to construction of the £18bn Point C nuclear power project to France’s EDF, but added several conditions.
EDF’s most recent timeline for Hinkley calls for the plant’s first reactor to come online sometime during 2025.
The government says the scheme will go ahead under a new agreement with EDF.
But now, the wholesale price of energy has plummeted to £45 per megawatt hour – making the Government’s deal pretty poor value.
According to a former colleague, ex-business minister Vince Cable, May had expressed concern at the “gung-ho” attitude that Cameron took towards courting Chinese investment.
As part of the agreement, though, the government also announced “significant new safeguards” that will impose restrictions on foreign investment on critical United Kingdom infrastructure, with the ostensible aim of improving national security.
China is providing one-third of the investment for Hinkley C, and hopes to build additional nuclear plants at Sizewell in Suffolk and Bradwell in Essex. This type of reactor design has never been successfully completed anywhere with EDF’s two other projects in Finland and France well over budget and behind schedule. “It’s more of a safety net, a backstop, than anything else”.
Currently, the United Kingdom has eight nuclear power stations which generate around 20% of the country’s power.
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New nuclear projects are slowly recovering after a steep drop following the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan.
