By Paul Homewood
While researching the post on coal power today, I came across this new piece of news. It is translated from Japanese, so excuse the English!
On April 4, it was learned that Hitachi’s nuclear power plant construction project in the UK was on the sunk. Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the company, said in an interview in this interview, “We are recruiting investors but few companies respond,” he said. The plan is carried out by Hitachi’s subsidiary, Horizon Nuclear Power, and it collects the construction cost of the power plant etc. by selling revenue income. However, due to nuclear safety measures, the total project cost has expanded, and the purchase price of electricity generated is likely to be kept low, so there is a question mark on the profitability of the project. Hitachi negotiates with Japanese and English governments and companies seeking support from loans and investment to reduce risk. Of the total project cost 3 trillion yen, the UK has set a promise to finance 2 trillion yen, but it is extremely difficult to procure the remaining one trillion yen covered by capital. In an interview, Nakanishi said in an interview “It is difficult if all of the investment is not in place.
http://electricityinfo.org/news/wylfa-175/
Wylfa was the government’s banker card, as far as new nuclear goes, particularly after Toshiba pulled the plug on Moorside.
A Final Investment Decision for Wylfa was expected next year, but this latest news casts grave doubts.
At a rate of 143 Yen to a Pound, the cost of 3 trillion yen works out at £21 bn, for a 2.9 GW plant that is smaller than Hinkley Point (3.2 GW). Hinkley’s cost is similar to Wylfa.
I cannot therefore see how the cost of power from Wylfa can come out any less than Hinkley, unless UK Government guarantees all of the debt, thus cutting the cost of capital. If it does that, of course, it might just as well finance the whole lot up front.
This, however, would be a huge risk, given all of the things that could go wrong. It would also raise the very pertinent question of why the taxpayer should take all the risk, when Hitachi make the profit.
via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
December 6, 2018 at 01:57PM
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