Whatever your position on nuclear power, it has been accepted by most commentators that the financing of this project is a bad deal for the UK.
The government has had to agree to buy energy from Hinkley Point at twice the current wholesale rate, and had to agree for price increases in the future. To secure funding our government has had to agree to insure the developer, because the project is so risky no business will take on the massive risk.
And who are the developers, well basically the French and Chinese state. So we the British taxpayers are paying the French and Chinese governments to provide us with electricity at twice the current market rate and agree price hikes into the future, and to gild the turd we are buying technology which is out dated, historically difficult to build with massive over-runs and unlike newer nuclear produces dangerous waste which we still have yet to find a disposal route for.
The technology must be considered mature, it’s been around since the 50’s but still requires massive state subsidies to get projects off the ground. You have to ask why our Government is happy to provide colossal support for nuclear yet behave so parsimoniously towards renewables.
They may well be an reasoned, coherent argument to be made for nuclear energy (thank-you Greenpeace), but Hinkley Point isn’t it.
Sarah Lunnon, September 2015