The UK government has struck a deal that is worth over £38bn with private investors to back Britain’s biggest nuclear project in a generation, the Sizewell C Nuclear Project. The project’s site is located on the Suffolk coast.
The long-awaited multibillion-pound deal will be paid for through taxes and energy bills. Additionally, it gives the final greenlight for the construction of the nuclear project. The nuclear project has almost doubled in cost from when it was first proposed.
Also read: UK’s Sizewell C Nuclear Power Plant receives £1.1 billion boost from EDF
Sizewell C Nuclear Project Factsheet
Location: it is located in Suffolk coast, England
Capacity: Sizewell C is expected to generate 3.2 GW of electricity. This will be enough to power approximately 6 million homes.
Technology: The project will utilize two EPR reactors. This is similar to the design of Hinkley Point C. It will enable efficiency and save on costs based on lessons learned from the sister nuclear plant.
Timeline:
- Development Consent Order (DCO) approved: July 20, 2022.
- Groundworks commenced: January 15, 2024.
- Final Investment Decision (FID) reached: July 22, 2025.
- Construction duration: Expected to take between nine and twelve years.
- Operational date: Expected in the 2030s.
The Sizewell C Nuclear project will foresee a collective investment from the UK government and Sizewell C’s developer, the French state-owned energy group EDF. Furthermore, a consortium of three other investors including the British Gas parent company, Centrica will put its investment in the project.
Also read: Sizewell C Forms Civil Works Alliance with Three Major Construction Firms
Significance of the Project
Sizewell C will produce enough low-carbon electricity to power six million UK homes when it commences its operations in the mid to late 2030s. However, an exact start date for the project has not been said by the UK government. Also, the plant will generate 10,000 jobs at the peak of its construction.
It is considered the successor project to the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset. The costs of the nuclear project have climbed from an estimated £18bn to commence generation of power in 2017 to about £46bn with an expected start-up date in the early 2030s.
Households will begin footing the project’s construction costs from this winter at a rate of £1 a month for every billpayer until the project is complete.
The funding mechanism means that Sizewell’s investors will be protected from the impact of any delays and overruns at the event of its construction. This protection is crucial given that the total cost could spiral to as much as £47bn.
Shares Distribution on the Sizewell C
The UK government’s stake in the project stood at 84% as of the end of last year. Also, EDF stood with a share of 16% share. As per the final deal, the UK government will remain the project’s largest shareholder with a 44.9% stake. However, as for the French utility’s share, it has shrunk to 12.5%.
Additionally other stakeholders have claimed their stake in the project. Centrica will have a 15% share while the Canadian investment group La Caisse will hold 20%. Lastly, the investment manager Amber Infrastructure will have an initial 7.6%.
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