By Susanna Twidale
LONDON (Reuters) – Five investors are involved in the bidding to take potential stakes in the Sizewell C nuclear plant being built in Britain by the government and France’s EDF, the project developer told Reuters on Thursday.
Britain’s Labour government has said nuclear plants will play an important role in helping the country meet its climate targets and decarbonise its electricity sector.
It is seeking investors in the Sizewell C nuclear plant and aiming to take a financial investment decision next year on taking the project forward.
“We have five investors in the process and potentially more,” Nigel Cann, Sizewell C managing director, said on the sidelines of an industry event.
The potential investors are split between traditional financial investors, pension funds and industry, he said.
Earlier this year, the government pledged 5.5 billion pounds ($7 billion) to help support development of the plant.
It would be only the second new nuclear plant built in Britain in more than two decades, after EDF’s Hinkley Point C, which has had several delays and cost overruns.
Cann said lessons learned from the Hinkley project meant Sizewell C would be quicker and cheaper to build than its predecessor and that it could be operational in the 2030s.
($1 = 0.7840 pounds)
(Reporting by Susanna Twidale. Editing by Mark Potter)
