New large-scale nuclear power plants for generating electricity. They were going to be a low-carbon dioxide supplement for new renewable wind and solar farms in Great Britain. A long-awaited government white paper next month will describe future plans for large scale nuclear power plants, assuming there are any plans.
Hitachi Ltd. just pulled the plug on its long planned Wylfa nuclear project. That leaves only Electricite de France SA for building new reactors in Britain. Whether any more are built is questionable. The cancellation of that new nuclear project puts more pressure on a government promising to lower carbon dioxide emissions.
Artist's rendering of planned Wylfa plant:
Maybe another developer will take over the Welsh Wylfa site. I doubt it. Paying for very expensive infrastructure is the biggest problem. The government is looking into future small modular reactors that will be cheaper to build, and more flexible.
“Nuclear power stations are very large projects with lead times of over a decade before any revenues flow,” said Professor Rob Gross, director of the U.K. Energy Research Centre. “If an individual project costs 15 billion pounds ($19.5 billion) or more then it is not surprising that the pool of private investors is quite small.”
The U.K. government is reluctant to put taxpayer money on the line, especially after the COVID-19 economic disruptions. Executives find it difficult to invest so much capital into a single large scale nuclear power plant project that may be delayed by years, and likely to run over budget.
The U.K. government has claimed it is committed to large-scale new nuclear plants, beyond EDF’s Hinkley Point C. That project will now cost as much as 22.5 billion pounds, including inflation, and the guaranteed price of power is higher than the guaranteed price of power for the latest round of offshore wind projects.
Three years ago, the UK planned to build 18 gigawatts of nuclear power plants to replace old plants. Now EDF’s Sizewell C is the only project likely to be built. The rest of the existing UK nuclear power plants are aging, and facing early closures. Four nuclear plants are expected to close by March 2024.
Natural gas power plants, very expensive batteries, or small modular nuclear reactors, could provide 100% back-up to UK's renewable energy ... to keep the lights on when there is no sun and/or no wind.