British Energy Sale Close to Closure?
The Scotsman reports that Electricite de France (EdF) will be submitting a revised bid of £10 billion for British Energy, and that this will be accepted by the nuclear company’s board. Rival bidders including Iberdrola and RWE are now expected to drop out.
Meanwhile Paul Golby, Chief Executive of E.ON UK, is lobbying strongly for permission to build new nuclear power stations in the UK. As E.ON does not appear to be in the running to buy British Energy, the company is presumably planning to purchase brownfield sites from the Nuclear Decommisioning Agency. Golby is certainly correct that the UK will be in serious need of new capacity very soon, and past history suggests that meeting this requirement with renewables will be very difficult indeed given the level of public antipathy. Of course the British public may also protest against new nuclear sites. Stories such as the recent leak at the Krsko nuclear plant in Slovenia, and the sabotage alert at E.ON’s Oskarshamn nuclear plant in Sweden, will not help the nuclear industry’s cause.