{"id":6126,"date":"2015-09-25T15:47:49","date_gmt":"2015-09-25T14:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6126"},"modified":"2015-09-25T15:47:49","modified_gmt":"2015-09-25T14:47:49","slug":"one-thing-we-have-learnt-this-week-hinkley-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6126","title":{"rendered":"One thing we have learnt this week – Hinkley C"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There have two major environmental stories this week and one of them involves emissions at stories<\/a> this week, the second being Hinkley C.\u00a0 Hinkley C is something we have covered before<\/a> multiple times.\u00a0 None of the arguments against have changed in fact they have intensified. In our book<\/a> we cover a whole heap of these but new ones keep appearing!<\/p>\n

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To summarise the sad story so far.\u00a0 In 2005 Tony Blair (after the general election) said we needed new nuclear build.\u00a0 EDF said they could build new nuclear without subsidy.\u00a0 Since then costs have steadily risen and there was a nuclear disaster in Japan.\u00a0 It became gradually apparent that EDF could not build Hinkley C without some form of subsidy and negotiations between the government and the consortium were taking place.\u00a0 In the end an electricity price of 9.5p\/unit was agreed, index linked for 35 years*.\u00a0 The reactor would be making toast by 2017.\u00a0 This was not enough and still no formal agreement was reached to go ahead.\u00a0 The Chinese appeared on the scene as financiers, but naturally wanting some work.\u00a0 Ground clearing at the site started, then stopped with almost everyone laid off.\u00a0 At the same time we have learnt that Areva the French reactor builder is in big trouble financially<\/a> due to huge delays and cost runs at the Franch and Finnish reactors (same design as Hinkley C).\u00a0 Then oil and gas prices collapsed.\u00a0 Recently the Secretary of State for Energy and climate change has admitted that solar is cheaper than nuclear – a wholly remarkable statement.\u00a0 At the same time the government announced its ending all subsidies for renewables (except offshore wind).\u00a0 This week the Chancellor on a visit to China has tried to kickstart the project by guaranteeing the loans for the Chinese investors to the tune of \u00a32billion.\u00a0 Lastly almost everyone in the city and pro-nuclear advocates think this is a bad deal.<\/p>\n

Where does this lead us?<\/p>\n

It seems slightly more likely that Hinkley C will go ahead but much more likely that it will be a disaster.\u00a0 The company building it is not in great financial shape.\u00a0 The technology is only proven to take longer to build and cost more than planned and all the alternatives will be cheaper by the time it opens, in 2025??!!?\u00a0 The government may cynically kill of the solar industry for the next 5 years until other countries force grid parity, but in 5 years time it will be back.\u00a0 There will be large chunks of the day\/year when very little grid electricity is required and wholesale prices may go negative.\u00a0 In the meanwhile I think the government will have to decide whether it decides to pay for all or part of this \u00a324 billion project.<\/p>\n

* much higher than both the current wholesale price of electricity and higher than all renewable subsidises going ahead, except offshore wind, although recent reports suggests costs of this technology are falling fast and it will be cheaper before Hinkley C opens.<\/p>\n

Neil<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have two major environmental stories this week and one of them involves emissions at stories this week, the second being Hinkley C.\u00a0 Hinkley C is something we have covered before multiple times.\u00a0 None of the arguments against have changed … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nuclear","category-transport"],"yoast_head":"\nOne thing we have learnt this week - Hinkley C - The oil lamp - shining God's light on peak oil<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There have been two huge environmental stories this week, the second being Hinkley C.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6126\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6126\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.theoillamp.co.uk\/?p=6126\",\"name\":\"One thing we have learnt this week - 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