UK ministers have confirmed they will enter formal negotiations with French utility EDF over how to finance Sizewell C, a £20bn nuclear power station proposed for England’s east coast, with talks centred around a funding model that could see consumers pay years before it has started generating electricity.
The government insisted that “no decision has yet been taken to proceed with the project”, but funding talks will probably focus on a so-called “regulated asset base model” (RAB) which has been used for other infrastructure such as the Thames Tideway “super sewer” and energy networks but has attracted fierce criticism as it would see energy bill-payers charged up front.
The government last year launched a consultation on the RAB model and said on Monday that it “remains of the view” that such a mechanism “is a credible basis for funding large-scale nuclear projects”, although it added that it would also continue to explore the viability of “other models”. Ministers have previously raised the prospect of the state taking an equity stake in any large new nuclear plant.
“Consideration will be given to the potential role of government finance in construction, provided there is clear value for money for consumers and taxpayers, and subject to all other relevant approvals,” the government said in a statement on Monday.
The announcement was released separately to a long-awaited energy white paper that sets out plans on how to “overwhelmingly” decarbonise Britain’s power system “in the 2030s”.
The announcement of talks over Sizewell C is likely to dismay environmental campaigning groups such as Greenpeace, which argue that renewable power such as offshore wind is already much cheaper than nuclear.
But it will delight nuclear industry executives who have been waiting since last year for signs that the government was prepared to forge ahead with another large new plant to replace Britain’s current fleet of ageing reactors.
Other developers such as Toshiba and Hitachi, which had also been looking at building new plants in the UK, have backed out in recent years.
Justin Bowden, national secretary of the GMB trade union, welcomed the announcement. “This is brilliant news for the zero carbon electricity it will generate for future generations and the thousands of jobs it will generate being built,” he said.
The £20bn Sizewell C plant is expected to be a replica of EDF’s Hinkley Point C — currently under construction in Somerset — but the French utility has long made clear that it would not proceed with another plant under the same funding terms.
The construction costs of Hinkley Point C have spiralled, with the latest estimate placed at up to £22.5bn. It is funded by EDF and its junior partner CGN of China in return for a controversial agreement that gives them a guaranteed a price of £92.50 per megawatt hour of electricity produced at the plant for 35 years. The rate was agreed in 2012 terms and is index linked.
The government said on Monday that successful negotiations with EDF over Sizewell C would be “dependent on the progress of Hinkley Point C, and the developer's application of lessons learnt from Hinkley Point C across to Sizewell C from development and design, through construction and commissioning, and into operations”.
The government also confirmed that an “ambitious” UK Emissions Trading Scheme would be in place when the Brexit transition period ends on January 1 and will “provide for the continuation of emissions trading for businesses at the end of the transition period”.
“Its scope will initially be the same as that of the EU ETS,” the government said, which will provide relief for companies that had feared the imposition of a carbon tax after the end of the transition period.
It added that the UK scheme would be “more ambitious than the EU system it replaces” because emissions allowed within the system “will be reduced by 5 per cent” from the outset.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiP2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2ZmMjViNWI1LTVlZWMtNGM4MS1hOWIyLTZlZjVjYWQ0ZDliMNIBP2h0dHBzOi8vYW1wLmZ0LmNvbS9jb250ZW50L2ZmMjViNWI1LTVlZWMtNGM4MS1hOWIyLTZlZjVjYWQ0ZDliMA?oc=5
2020-12-14 08:52:00Z
52781243866092
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar