Hinkley Point nuclear power plant delayed past 2023
French energy giant EDF has admitted that the construction of its £24.5bn nuclear plant at Hinkley Point in Somerset will be delayed.
The French energy company said that the nuclear plant, which would be the first new one in decades in Britain, will not start generating power in 2023, as initially planned.
EDF has faced financing problems for the project and remains in discussions with the British government and is said to still retain hopes of negotiating funding from China.
The nuclear plant was announced by the British government in 2010 and was expected to generate, together with Sizewell C, 13% of UK electricity by the 2020s.
The UK's coal-fired power plants will be forced to close before 2023 under European air quality rules and the delay to Hinkley coming on stream will require another source to fill the gap.
The news came after the energy group announced its project at Flamanville in Normandy would also suffer a one-year delay, and will now not start operating until 2018. Its cost was also raised from €3bn in 2005 to €10bn.
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