Category Archives: News

The Times 14 December

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/boris-johnson-approves-talks-on-new-nuclear-power-plant-at-sizewell-kxcvg6tg7

Boris Johnson approves talks on new nuclear power plant at Sizewell

Steven Swinford | Emily Gosden, Energy Editor
The Times

Boris Johnson has approved the start of negotiations with EDF about funding a new £20 billion nuclear power plant despite concerns that taxpayers would foot the bill for any extra costs.

The government is considering backing Sizewell C, a twin-reactor plant in Suffolk. It could generate 3.2 gigawatts of electricity, enough to provide 7 per cent of Britain’s energy needs.

The move is a vital part of the prime minister’s pledge to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Most reactors are due to shut down this decade, leading to fears of blackouts in the 2030s.

China General Nuclear Power (CGN), a Chinese state company, has a 20 per cent stake in Sizewell C but is thought to be planning to pull out, increasing the need for new investors. The government is considering taking an equity stake in the plant amid concerns that private investment could still leave it with multibillion-pound liabilities. Taking an equity stake would allow taxpayers to benefit from any profits.

Sizewell C is now the only project in contention for government investment. The government offered to take a one-third stake in Hitachi’s Wylfa plant on Anglesey, but the Japanese company cancelled it in September.

Sizewell would be a sister project to Hinkley Point C, which EDF, the French energy company, is building in Somerset with CGN. Costs there have risen to £22.5 billion. Alison Downes, of the Stop Sizewell C campaign group, has said previously: “Sizewell C is a bad project — if EDF can’t make it work on their own terms they shouldn’t expect the British public to bail them out.”

Tom Greatrex, of the Nuclear Industry Association, said: “Any credible analysis of reaching net-zero shows you need lots of zero-carbon, including that which is not reliant on the weather.

“Nuclear construction isn’t expensive — financing nuclear projects is. Using a better model than at Hinkley would significantly reduce the cost for consumers.”

The announcement of talks with EDF comes as the government publishes its energy white paper, which includes plans to switch consumers to cheaper tariffs automatically.

Alok Sharma, the business secretary, will publish proposals today to end the “loyalty penalty”, which according to Look After My Bills, a price comparison website, costs loyal customers an average of £169 more a year. Under one plan to be tested, called “opt-in switching”, consumers will be offered a simple method to switch if their initial contract has ended. “Opt-out switching” will involve consumers being automatically moved to a more competitive rate.

Government’s hopes Sizewell C could provide ‘value for money’ are “pie in the sky”, say campaigners

For Immediate Release 14 December 2020

Government’s hopes Sizewell C could provide ‘value for money’ are “pie in the sky”, say campaigners

[SUFFOLK] The financial problems underlying the proposed new nuclear power station at Sizewell C are insurmountable, say local campaigners Stop Sizewell C, despite the government’s announcement today of negotiations with developer EDF. The government says it will explore funding the double-reactor plant through a ‘nuclear tax’ and consider a direct stake, subject to “a value for money deal” being achievable. [1] 

The government requires assurances that EDF has learned lessons at Hinkley Point, but none of this type of reactor being constructed in Europe are on time or budget. Hinkley Point is billions overspent, Olkiluoto in Finland and Flamanville in France also overspent and a decade late [2] and Sizewell C’s site next to protected habitats on an eroding coast will present different challenges to those at Hinkley. Huge questions surround who will pay for the inevitable cost overruns in any deal between the French-goverment owned developer and the UK. 

The Regulated Asset Base (or RAB) funding model suggested in the White Paper would require a levy on all electricity bills even before construction starts, to recompense private investors. Even consumers on ‘Green’ or ‘100% Renewable’ tariffs would have to shoulder this extra cost.

In the last week, Stop Sizewell C has been told by confidential sources that – if Sizewell C ever went ahead – China General Nuclear would withdraw from the construction phase, the government would take a 10% stake, EDF’s share would reduce to 10%, leaving at least £16 billion of the estimated £20 billion to be found. CGN’s withdrawal has been reported by the Daily Mail. Stop Sizewell C also opposes the project because it would have unacceptable impacts on host communities and east Suffolk’s fragile coast and natural environment, including internationally-famous RSPB Minsmere; it wouldn’t contribute to net zero until at least 2040 nor help ‘level up’ the UK. [3] 

Reacting to the Energy White Paper Stop Sizewell C [4] representatives said:

Alison Downes: “As Alok Sharma said, this is not a green light to build Sizewell C and the idea that it could provide value for money is “pie in the sky”. Costing at least £20 billion, Sizewell C remains too slow and expensive to help our climate emergency, and both the government and any pension funds considering the project must beware the reputational risk of investing in a still unproven reactor design that even the French are abandoning, [5] to be constructed on an eroding coastline, neighbouring the world famous Minsmere reserve.

Charles Macdowell: “The government’s financing ideas – which are still just ideas – will open a real can of worms. Both RAB and a direct stake in Sizewell C would suck vital funds away from renewable and storage  technologies that are already revolutionising our energy. Since both a direct stake and RAB go on the government’s balance sheet, they are also inextricably bound up in the ongoing saga of the UK’s transition out of the EU.” [6] 

 

Paul Collins: “EDF is more than a year from a decision on planning consent, and our energy landscape is transforming all the time. Just 18 months ago, then Business Secretary Greg Clark said the UK needed 40GW of ‘baseload capacity’ by 2050, [7] inferring that this would come from new nuclear, but none of the Climate Change Committee’s five energy scenarios published last week had more than 10GW; and three had just 5GW. [8] If Sizewell C went ahead, it would be obsolete before it was completed and interfere with the progress towards 80% renewable supply. Sizewell C is the wrong project in the wrong place: it should not be part of a truly green recovery and there is still time for the government to realise this.”

 

Opposition to Sizewell C is strong and growing as the impacts on local communities and the environment of the 10-12 year build become clearer,  alongside concerns that EDF’s claims of economic benefit are unproven. [9] Sizewell C is opposed by Suffolk MP Dan Poulter, thousands of individuals, [10] organisations such as the RSPB and Suffolk Wildlife Trust, and dozens of Parish and Town Councils including Aldeburgh and Woodbridge. Suffolk County Council has stated it “cannot support” EDF’s proposals. More than 100 rural businesses [11] and over 60 influencers have sent letters of opposition to Ministers. [12] National Infrastructure Commission Chair Sir John Armitt [13] and Committee on Climate Change Chair Lord Deben [14] have both raised questions about the need for Sizewell C. 

 

Notes

  1. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-sets-out-plans-for-clean-energy-system-and-green-jobs-boom-to-build-back-greener 
  2. No country in Western Europe has any operating EPRs or new builds besides Hinkley Point C and the catastrophic Flamanville (France) and Olkiluoto (Finland) projects which are a decade behind schedule and multiple times overspent.
  3.  Information from EDF’s application for Development Consent: Funding Statement and Climate Change docs (page 33). See also our report www.stopsizewellc.org/sizewell-c-and-climate-change/ and RSPB statement.
  4. Stop Sizewell C is a campaign group formed by local people in the community on the frontline of the project. We did not start out opposing Sizewell C but were driven to it after 8 years of EDF’s failed engagement and the destructive nature of its proposals. 
  5. The EPR has been described by Dr Paul Dorfman of UCL as “too complex to build to time and budget”. EDF will build no more of this design in France and aims to have a new EPR design by 2021,  but Sizewell C would be the old design.
  6. State aid is widely reported as one of the sticking points in Brexit negotiations
  7. https://www.edie.net/news/10/Clark-UK-may-need-40GW-of-new-baseload-generation-by-2050/38818/
  8. https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Sector-summary-Electricity-generation.pdf page 29
  9. See an independent critique of EDF’s Economic Statement www.stopsizewellc.org/economic-impacts/ 
  10. In the last 2 weeks over 50,000 people have signed an RSPB petition opposing Sizewell C https://e-activist.com/page/71193/petition/
  11. https://stopsizewellc.org/over-100-rural-businesses-oppose-sizewellc/
  12. https://stopsizewellc.org/bill-nighy-joins-campaign-to-stop-new-sizewell-nuclear-power-station/
  13. Sir John Armitt: “Hopefully by 2025, we will be able to rely on much smarter systems and won’t have to rely on nuclear” Quoted in https://utilityweek.co.uk/treasury-still-unconvinced-rab-model-nuclear/ 
  14. Lord Deben has described nuclear as a “transitional” energy source whose need reduces as grid-balancing improves. As reported in Utility Week http://www.utilityweek.co.uk/lord-deben-politicians-finally-grasped-reality-climate-change/