Hinkley Point C in doubt after British government delays approval (nuclear power)

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. The Final Investment Decision has been put off for months, and the UK govt wanted the project

just 4 days ago:

Hinkley Point C decision expected on Wednesday - with new questions over whether EDF will say 'oui'
By TristanCork | Posted: January 25, 2016

The final decision on whether the controversial new Hinkley Point C nuclear power station is expected to be made on Wednesday in Paris – with French energy firm EDF wrestling with last-minute jitters over the project.

The uncertainty over whether Hinkley C will get the 'Final Investment Decision' (FID) go-ahead looks like going right to the moment the board of the state-owned French energy giants meet tomorrow, with conflicting developments even in the past few days.

Read more at http://www.somersetlive.co.uk/hinkley-point-c-decision-expected-wednesday-edf/story-28599133-detail/story.html#q2PbBSgUtg8tSyMh.99

France gives go ahead to Hinkley Point, French minister says
Sunday 17 April 2016 12.11 BST

France will go ahead with construction of the £18bn Hinkley Point nuclear power plant in Britain and will begin agreeing technical details in the coming weeks, the French economy minister has said.
...
“Now we have to finalise the work, and especially the technical and industrial work, very closely with EDF, with the British government, to be in a situation to sign in the coming week or month.”
...
Earlier this month, the French energy minister, Ségolène Royal, said that a postponement of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power project was still under discussion.

Macron’s views also appeared at odds with the message that EDF unions took after meeting him last week, when he reportedly said he had not yet decided whether to go ahead with the nuclear plant and that a final investment decision would be taken by early May.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/17/france-go-ahead-hinkley-point-macron-andrew-marr-show

UK explores multi-billion pound free trade deal with China
By Kamal Ahmed
Economics editor
24 July 2016

...
No project better sums up how investment in major infrastructure projects is now a global issue than Hinkley Point, the £18bn plan for a new nuclear power station in Somerset backed by France's EDF energy company and one of China's main nuclear suppliers.

Mr Hammond said that the government still supported the project, and that a final agreement would be signed "hopefully over the next few days" after an EDF board meeting to agree the details.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36877573

It really was a complete surprise for the UK government to hold things up.

While renewables are delivering a quarter of UK electricity - in 2015 and the first quarter of 2016 - 35% of those renewables are biomass, rather than solar (9% of renewables over the year, and 6% in the 1st quarter of 2016) or wind (about 50%). And that biomass is largely imported wood (eg "Compared to 2015 Q1, generation from bioenergy increased by 18.0 per cent to 8.3 TWh largely due to an conversion at Drax Power Station to high-range co-firing (85 per cent to 100 per cent biomass)&quot . I'm not really convince importing ever more wood is sustainable in the long term, so it would take a huge increase in the wind generation to replace nuclear and coal by 2025. Or gas.