Electricite de France SA’s planned Hinkley Point C nuclear plant will cost British consumers as much as 21 billion pounds ($27 billion) in subsidies over the lifetime of the French utility’s contract with the U.K., according to an estimate from the government. The plant will receive 92.50 pounds a megawatt-hour of power it produces for 35 years under a contract signed on Thursday by the French and U.K. governments. The cost of subsidies levied on consumer bills will probably range from 12 billion pounds to 21 billion pounds, according to a document posted Thursday the U.K. government website.
Bloomberg 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Energy Live News 30th Sept 2016 read more »
Hinkley Point C Documents.
BEIS 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Contract for Difference for Hinkley Point C.
BEIS 29th Sept 2016 read more »
The French and Chinese companies that are to build the £18bn Hinkley Point C nuclear power station will have to pay up to £7.2bn to dismantle and clean it up.Documents published yesterday reveal for the first time how much the developers, EDF and China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN), will have to pay to decommission the plant, beginning in 2083. The new reactors in Somerset will be unique in British nuclear history, as they are the first for which the operator will have to pay to make good the site afterwards. “Waste transfer contracts signed today mean that, for the first time in the UK, the full costs of decommissioning and waste management associated with the new power station are set aside during generation and are included in the price of the electricity,” EDF said in a statement. The Hinkley Point C decommissioning costs are estimated at £5.9bn to £7.2bn, with the dismantling of the plant expected to begin in 2083. The government, EDF and CGN anticipate the winding up of the new reactors will continue well into the 22nd century. The plant is expected to be fully decommissioned “from 2138” when the final spent fuel is disposed of. Experts said the cost estimate was likely to be on the low side. “The reality in terms of decommissioning is that it always costs more than people say,” said Dr Paul Dorfman, of the Energy Institute at University College London. He claimed that the precedent of the government taking ownership of the liabilities of British Nuclear Fuels Limited and British Energy more than a decade ago showed that the government would be forced to shoulder the costs if Hinkley’s developers had a shortfall. The business department also admitted that large scale solar power and onshore windfarms could produce electricity for less than the price agreed for Hinkley, as the National Audit Office said in the summer. But officials suggested there would be additional costs to the renewable alternatives. “There would be significant upgrades to the grid required (such as connection and planning costs) as well as increased costs to keep the system in balance,” said the ‘Value for money assessment’. Greenpeace UK executive director, John Sauven, said: “We now have it straight from the horse’s mouth. Increasingly cheaper renewable energy sources do indeed offer better value for money to British bill-payers than Hinkley.
Guardian 30th Sept 2016 read more »
The Hinkley Point C Funded Decommissioning Programme sets out EDF’s arrangements for managing and disposing of the plant’s waste and the decommissioning of the site.
BEIS 29th Sept 2016 read more »
Signing of a £18 billion contract for electricity off take from the Hinkely Point C nuclear project is burdening rate-payers with higher costs than new gas power stations would have done, the UK government had to admit. Analysts at Barclays Bank estimated EDF will generate a 7.2% rate of return – even if the project would come in 25% over budget and was completed four years late (by 2029).
Gas to Power Journal 30th Sept 2016 read more »
[Machine Translation] The General Court dismissed an application by German and Austrian electricity suppliers against subsidies for the British nuclear power plant Hinkley Point. The green electricity provider Greenpeace Energy said on Thursday in Hamburg, the court in Luxembourg has referred to the action as not allowed. The company is now considering an appeal against it. Meanwhile, the contract for the construction of new reactors was signed.
Euractiv 30th Sept 2016 read more »
Our district is ready for building work to begin says Sedgemoor leader.
Burnham-on-sea 30th Sept 2016 read more »
COMMUNITY projects in Burnham and Highbridge could benefit from part of a £13million fund announced in the wake of Hinkley C being given the green light. This week the Somerset Community Foundation (SCF), who will be managing the new Hinkley C Community Fund, said it is looking forward to playing an important role in supporting communities most affected by the construction over the next decade. As part of the Section 106 agreement for the construction of the project, £13million of funding will be available and the SCF said it will work with local communities, councils and other stakeholders in early 2017 to define priorities ready for the launch of the fund in the second half of next year.
Burnham and Highbridge Weekly News 30th Sept 2016 read more »
Caroline Lucas, the Green Party’s co-leader, has responded to Government ministers from the UK, France and China giving the final go-ahead for the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station to be built. Caroline Lucas MP said: “The Government has just signed a deal for the most outrageously overpriced white elephant project imaginable. Not only are bill payers going to be ripped off but this absurd project will also divert resources away from building the energy infrastructure we need, and threaten our climate change targets because of the snail’s pace at which it will be built. “This is not the end of the fight against Hinkley – and we will be joining campaigners in continuing to highlight the major shortcomings of this project. This is a crossroads for Britain – and the signing of this deal has seen us swerve down the wrong path. By reversing this decision we can put the resources needed into building an energy system where power is in the hands of the many, not the few – and where Britain puts to use its most abundant resources: the sun, sea and wind.”
Green Party 30th Sept 2016 read more »
The Stop Hinkley Campaign has branded this “an enormous error of judgement” on the part of both EDF Energy and the UK Government
Stop Hinkley Press Release 29th Sept 2016 read more »