06 November 2009 10:26
E.ON UK and RWE npower nuclear joint venture fully established

RWE npower and E.ON UK have today announced further details of their nuclear joint venture, which is to be called Horizon Nuclear Power.

The company will begin operation from 16 November working from new headquarters near Gloucester. 

The 50:50 joint venture was created in January and aims to develop around 6,000MW of new nuclear capacity in the UK – enough to power a city the size of Greater London – by 2025.  The first reactor is expected to come online around 2020. 

Earlier this year the company secured development land at Wylfa on Anglesey and Oldbury-on-Severn in South Gloucestershire.   Its programme of new nuclear power stations could involve more than £15bn in investment and create around 11,000 jobs, including around 800 permanent jobs at each site and up to 10,000 during construction.

Chief Operating Officer Alan Raymant said: “Nuclear energy will form a key part of Britain’s low carbon future and Horizon Nuclear Power will play a key role in delivering new nuclear stations, helping achieve the UK’s stretching environmental targets and keeping energy prices affordable over the long term.”  

The company is also progressing its competitive tender process with Areva and Westinghouse for the selection of a reactor technology.

“Choosing our reactor supplier is a significant milestone and the technical and commercial evaluation of our options is well underway,” said Alan. “A team of nuclear experts from across RWE and E.ON has been put in place to support this process, with the aim of selecting a preferred supplier for exclusive negotiation early in the new year.”

The company will also look to establish local offices close to its development sites at Wylfa and Oldbury.  “We’ve met a lot of local people and groups around our sites at Oldbury and Wylfa and we’ll maintain an open, no-surprises approach,” said Alan.

“Technical investigations are progressing well and we’ll shortly be engaging further with local organisations and the public on the detailed studies required to prepare consent applications.

“The imminent publication of the Government’s Nuclear National Policy Statement is also a key step and we look forward to playing our part in the consultation process that follows.  It's vital that the Government sticks to the timeline for establishing the regulatory and consenting framework for new nuclear if we are to deliver what the country needs in terms of reliable, low carbon electricity.” 

Horizon Nuclear Power will have an initial focus on consenting and constructing new nuclear power stations which will have a 60 year lifetime.

E.ON and RWE have interests in 23 nuclear reactors in Germany and Sweden, including two jointly owned reactors at Gundremmingen and one at Lingen. 

-Ends-

For more information contact:
Leon Flexman at RWE npower on 0845 070 2807 or leon.flexman@npower.com  Or
Jonathan Smith at E.ON UK on 024 7618 3676 or jonathan.smith@eon-uk.com

Notes to editors:

E.ON is one of the UK’s leading power and gas companies – generating and distributing electricity, and retailing power and gas. The company is currently building the 1,275MW gas-fired CHP power station at Grain in Kent, the 180MW Robin Rigg offshore wind farm in the Solway Firth and a gas storage facility at Holford in Cheshire. It also has permission to build a 1,200MW gas-fired power station at Drakelow in Derbyshire and has applied to build a 1,600MW cleaner coal-fired power station at Kingsnorth in Kent. . The company is a joint venture partner in the London Array, the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Its green development portfolio could, if built, power a million homes and displace the emission of two million tonnes of CO₂ a year.