Companies

German power generators Looking for lifelines

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

Embattled E.ON and RWE turn to the government and the courts for help

Jun 7th 2014, BERLIN - RECENT years have brought little but bad news for Germany’s power generators. Having overinvested in gas- and coal-fired plants before the financial crisis, the two largest, E.ON and RWE, ended up with excess capacity in the ensuing downturn—just as lavish subsidies to wind- and solar-power producers were bringing a host of new competitors to the market. After the nuclear accident at Fukushima in Japan in 2011, the German government decided that all nuclear plants in the country must close by 2022, bringing forward the huge costs of decommissioning them. To cap it all, ever more industrial consumers of electricity have gone “off the grid”, generating their own power. Shares in the two power giants have fallen by almost half in the past five years, whereas Germany’s DAX stockmarket index has almost doubled in that time (see chart).

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Russia to Help Kazakhstan Build Nuclear Power Plant

Friday, May 30, 2014

ASTANA, May 29 (RIA Novosti) – Russia and Kazakhstan have signed a memorandum on the construction of a nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan during a Supreme Eurasian Economic Council session in Astana on Thursday.

The agreement was signed by nuclear corporations Rosatom and Kazatomprom in the presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev.

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Finland's TVO postpones next nuclear plant

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

HELSINKI May 20 (Reuters) - Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima on Tuesday asked for a five-year extension to submit a construction license application for Olkiluoto 4 nuclear unit.

The consortium was due to apply for the Olkiluoto 4 construction license by 2015, but problems at its current plant project make decision-making regarding the following project impossible by that, it said.

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Vapaavuori expects decision on Fennovoima nuclear plant in August

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Economic Affairs Minister Jan Vapaavuori says government isn’t likely to make a decision on the construction of a nuclear power plant by the power consortium Fennovoima before August. Vapaavuori told Yle that the project is still important to the main government partner the National Coalition Party.

Speaking on Yle’s Aamu-tv breakfast programme Tuesday Vapaavuori confirmed that the government wouldn’t be making a decision on the proposed nuclear power plant in Pyhäjoki, northwest Finland until August.

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German utilities and government clash over nuclear ‘bad bank’

Monday, May 12, 2014

Germany’s nuclear industry is fighting Berlin over a plan to transfer the risks of shutting down facilities to a publicly owned foundation that would act as a “bad bank”.

The power companies are engaged in a decommissioning exercise with an estimated cost of more than €30bn after Berlin announced an accelerated exit from nuclear energy following the Fukushima disaster in 2011. The work includes demolishing nuclear plants and disposing of radioactive waste.

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France caught between nuclear cliff and investment wall

Thursday, May 1, 2014

PARIS, April 30 (Reuters) - France must decide in the next few years whether it wants to continue its nuclear-driven energy policy at a cost of up to 300 billion euros ($415 billion) or if it wants to embark on an equally costly route towards using other fuels.

Most of the country's 58 nuclear reactors were built during a short period in the 1980s, and about half will reach their designed age limits of 40 in the 2020s, pushing France towards what industry calls "the nuclear cliff."

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Czechs pull plug on nuclear expansion

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

More than five years of international intrigue ended with a whimper on April 10th as ČEZ, a Czech utility company, officially cancelled the planned expansion of the Temelín nuclear power plant, 120 km south of Prague in the South Bohemia region. The project was undone by a fall in electricity prices and the spectre of a botched state energy scheme in years past.

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Nuclear industry says weak carbon price justifies state funding

Monday, April 14, 2014

BRUSSELS, April 10 (Reuters) - FORATOM, which represents Europe's nuclear industry, said new atomic power generation will need financial support as long as carbon prices are low and hit back at EU regulators' criticism of funding for a plant to be built by EDF.

The European Commission, the EU regulator, has launched an in-depth investigation into Britain's plan to provide public funding for a 19 billion euro ($26.37 billion) nuclear plant to be built at Hinkley Point in Britain.

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Czech president wants new tender for nuclear project

Thursday, April 10, 2014

PRAGUE, April 9 (Reuters) - A tender for the $10-15 billion expansion of the Czech Republic's Temelin nuclear power plant should be wound down and replaced with a new contest with more bidders, President Milos Zeman said on Wednesday.

The plan to build two reactors at the site has been undermined by falling power prices and the government's unwillingness to provide price guarantees to Temelin's owner, CEZ, which is majority-owned by the state.

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Ukraine moves to crack Russia's hold on its nuclear power

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

It's not just natural gas that keeps Ukraine under Russia's thumb. Almost all the fuel for Ukraine's 15 nuclear reactors comes from Russia, too.

But just as Ukraine is struggling to diversify away from Russian natural gas, it is also eager to break Moscow's virtual monopoly over its nuclear fuel.

Pennsylvania-based Westinghouse Electric Co. told various media outlets this week it will renew a contract with Ukraine's Energoatom that will extend and expand its flow of nuclear fuel to the struggling nation. The deal is valued at $100 million.

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