Hinkley Point nuclear subsidy challenged by Austria

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Source: BBC

Austria has filed a legal complaint at the European Court of Justice against the use of government subsidies for the planned Hinkley Point C nuclear plant.

Austria's leader, Chancellor Werner Faymann, said the subsidies should support "new and modern technology" in the interest of all EU states.

But he argued this subsidy does not apply to atomic energy "in any way".

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The Austrians argued a deal by the UK government to guarantee the price of electricity from the nuclear plant breaches European rules on state aid.

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Read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-somerset-33407569

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1. There's no way this deal was legitimately approved. nt

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2. July 2: Greenpeace and utilities launch suit against Hinkley nuclear plant

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/02/greenpeace-utilities-launch-suit-against-hinkley-nuclear-plant

Greenpeace and utilities launch suit against Hinkley nuclear plant

Nine German and Austrian utilities selling renewable energy join with green group to launch legal action against state aid for new nuclear power in UK

Reuters
Thursday 2 July 2015 06.32 EDT

Greenpeace and nine German and Austrian utilities selling renewable energy said on Thursday they are launching legal action against state aid for a new British nuclear power plant, which was approved by the European commission.

Greenpeace and the others in the group said at a news briefing that the lawsuit would be filed with the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in the coming days, over the Hinkley Point C project in south-west England.

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The campaigners said price guarantees for Hinkley Point C’s output, calculated over 35 years, would amount to €108bn (£77bn) while state guarantees for the construction of the reactor exceeded another €20bn.

They said the Hinkley Point C could become a precedent for nuclear projects in Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, which would run counter to Germany’s intended transition to a renewable-based energy future.

Artificially low prices of electricity derived from subsidised nuclear plants would push up prices German consumers were paying for green energy, they said.

Greenpeace Energy supplies 111,000 customers with renewable power.

The other nine companies in the alliance are Energieversorgung Filstal, municipal utilities (called Stadtwerke) of Aalen, Bietigheim-Bissingen, Bochum, Mainz, Muehlacker, Schwaebisch Hall and Tuebingen, and Austria’s oekostrom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenpeace_Energy

Greenpeace Energy is a German electric utility in the form of a registered association. The stated goal of the cooperative is, the provision of environmentally friendly energy to the electrical grid.

As a founding member of the association Greenpeace eV holds only five shares at 55 euros in the cooperative, otherwise the Environmental Protection Agency and the companies are financially and legally independent. The name use is linked contract with the condition that Greenpeace Energy fulfills the conditions laid down by the Greenpeace e. V. quality criteria for "clean energy".

Formation

In 1998, Greenpeace started a renewable energy initiative called "power shift". There, consumers could choose to switch to a green electricity provider. As more and more consumers agreed to switch to an environmentally friendly provider, Greenpeace found no electricity provider that met all the criteria for environmental sustainability, and supply the increasing demand for sustainable energy. As a solution, Greenpeace Energy was founded in 1999, as an electricity provider that produces a large part of its electricity from renewable sources. The areas of network management and energy billing are not adopted by Greenpeace Energy itself but by its affiliate company, Stadtwerke Schwäbisch Hall, as a service provider.

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