French energy company EDF Thursday gave the green light to a major nuclear power plant project in southwest England that some consider too costly, including one board member who announced his resignation.
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Although the company’s 18-strong board yesterday backed the investment case for the controversial power plant, reports put the vote at 10 board members for it and seven against.
But it is understood that the firm will press ahead with plans for the £24billion plant which will eventually replace Hinkley Point B when it is decommissioned.
Once completed, Hinkley Point C will provide 7 percent of Britain’s electricity.
Reuters reported that Gerard Magnin had resigned, warning that Hinkley Point would place intense financial pressure on EDF and risked distracting it from a strategy to setp up investment in renewables. And the Chinese have said they will fund no more than a third of the project, leaving EDF to finance 66 per cent of Hinkely Point.
EDF declined to comment ahead of the meeting but has previously said that the plant meets “stringent safety standards” and is a good deal for consumers (Other OTC: UBGXF – news).
He said the Government was right to review the terms of the deal and should seek to ensure better value for the taxpayer, rather than scrapping it altogether. “The UK government must now have a flexible vision of our nuclear future due to the potential opportunities that could be offered through innovation and demonstration projects”.
It now supplies around 20% of the UK’s electricity, but around half the existing 15 reactors will be retired by 2025, and it is hoped Hinkley will help fill the gap.
“We back the Hinkley Point project, it’s very important for France, it’s very important for the nuclear sector and EDF”, Macron said in an interview with the BBC in April.
Nigel Cann, site construction director at Hinkley Point C, told Somerset Live early this month the South West regional economy would benefit by £100 million each year of peak construction and woule be using local suppliers wherever possible is a key commitment for the project.
“Today’s decision doesn’t prove the United Kingdom is open for business post Brexit – it just shows the Hinkley deal became too big to fail in the eyes of British and French politicians” he said.
The government signed a 35-year electricity price guarantee contract, known as a “contract for difference”, with EDF in October 2013, under which the utility will receive a top-up fee if power prices are below 92.50 pounds per megawatt-hour (MWh).
China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) is set to be confirmed as taking a 33.5% stake in the project.
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He also said France’s nuclear-dominated energy strategy made the country highly vulnerable.
