Sizewell/Hinkley: Nuclear deal ‘a £50bn gamble’, says Royal advisor

[bananas]

Source: East Anglian Daily Times

A ROYAL advisor has slammed Government proposals to guarantee a minimum price for the electricity generated by EDF Energy for the next 30-40 years.

Former Sustainable Development Commission (SDC) chairman Jonathon Porritt compared guaranteeing a “strike price” for the electricity produced by Hinkley Point C to making a “£50billion bet on the wholesale price of energy in 2050”.

Under proposals by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), a minimum price for the nuclear electricity of almost £100 per megawatt hour would give EDF a guarantee on future returns and may herald similar deals for the rest of Britain’s planned nuclear suite, including Sizewell C.

But Mr Porritt, one-time director of Friends of the Earth and founder of the non-profit Forum for the Future, said energy minister Ed Davey was planning to sign a long-term investment contract to buy electricity at twice today’s price from power stations that will not produce any electricity in this decade.

Mr Porritt, who acts as advisor on environmental matters to Prince Charles, added: “That would be like having asked Tony Benn, Harold Wilson’s energy minister in 1976, if he knew what the wholesale price of electricity would be in 2013.”

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Read more: http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/sizewell_hinkley_nuclear_deal_a_50bn_gamble_says_royal_advisor_1_1981039

[djean111]

1. In other words, the American way - guaranteed profits for the big guys.

This way, the success of any alternative energy doesn't matter - nuclear plant owners make a profit either from raising rates or being reimbursed by taxpayers. Win-win. Kudos.
No "free hand of the market" for them.
No - Capitalism is never a gamble for them, like it is for the rest of us.
"Capitalism" has been corrupted into surefire, fixed bets.
The ratepayers and taxpayers are on the hook whether the big "capitalists" win or lose.
Over here, in Florida and some other states, power companies can charge extra just for thinking about nuclear plants. They don't actually have to build them, and they don't have to pay the money back if they don't build them or if the ones they build are worthless and dangerous.
Let's watch and see if legislation to remedy that makes it through the state legislatures.

At the top, there is no Capitalism, just cronyism and insider deals by tax-dodging corporations.
With the complete complicity of all but a very few, from the presidency on down.

I really am starting to think there is no point in voting; we are not represented.
I know there is no point in campaign contributions (bribes) from the people; we cannot compete.