Articles by
Dave Toke
Onshore wind schemes now being installed are more than 30 per cheaper than Hinkley C!
By
Dave Toke
Onshore wind schemes now being installed are being paid over 30 per cent less than what Hinkley C would be paid under the UK Government's current agreement with EDF if it was generating now.
Should anti-nuclear supporters now call for EDF to build Hinkley C?
By
Dave Toke
Strange as it may seem, there is now a plausible argument for anti-nuclear campaigners to call for Hinkley C to be built. Why? Because the financial catastrophe that would, as a result, envelope, and destroy, EDF would mean the end of prospects for new nuclear power in Europe.
Horizon boss’s statement exposes fantasy nature of UK nuclear power programme
By
Dave Toke
The boss of one of the three supposed consortia claimed to be building Britain's nuclear power stations has all but admitted that his project is a fantasy one.
Treasury ruling spells final end for Hinkley C….surely?
By
Dave Toke
The announcement by the Treasury that their offer of loan guarantees for the EPR at Hinkley C is linked to successful functioning of the Flamanville EPR means that short of absolute lunacy reigning at EDF HQ the power plant could not possibly be given a final go-ahead until 2018 at the earliest, and most probably never.
How rational choice theory explains EDF’s mad gamble on Hinkley C
By
Dave Toke
he spectacle of the disastrous attempts to build a new generation of nuclear reactor - the European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs) - and EDF's apparent desire to carry on despite the increasing likelihood that the financial losses from this will destroy EDF as a going business (see my earlier blog posts on this) raise the question: If this is true, then why do they carry on with this apparent financial suicide?
EDF wants French Government to pay for British nuclear reactor at Hinkley C!
By
Dave Toke
As if anything extra was needed to demonstrate the financial lunacy of the Hinkley C project to all parties concerned, EDF, according to French press reports, now wants the French Government to pay for it!
What a smart response! – wind cheaper than fossil fuels
By
Dave Toke
So we are backing up the cheap renewables with fossil fuels that are not so cheap, and the solution to that is to use the fossil fuels that are not so cheap all the time? That sum does not quite add up. I am not sure that I have worked out the equation.
More Daishan EPR delays as EDF ponders financial suicide plan for funding Hinkley C
By
Dave Toke
Further delays at the Daishan EPR project being built in China are hammering another nail in a coffin. The only debate now is whether the coffin will house the Hinkley C project or the whole of EDF.
Study shows that renewable energy auctions don’t reduce costs any more than feed-in tariffs
By
Dave Toke
Despite the clear message from Paris that we need to expand renewable energy as rapidly as possible the means of promoting renewable energy now being chosen are much concerned with limiting its expansion. . . Big energy companies also like the system since they can dominate auctions more easily.
Britain: Payments to fossil fuel plant now being counted as ‘environmental’ by Treasury
By
Dave Toke
In a move that will astonish many the Treasury have decided to count payments to existing fossil and nuclear power stations for providing capacity as 'environmental' levies'.
The untold story of how windfarms help keep the lights on
By
Dave Toke
The UK press has been full of stories implying that wind power is to blame for the National Grid having to call in expensive demand shedding measures recently to keep the lights on. What they will not tell you is how often wind power saves the UK consumer large amounts of money because the National Grid does not have to buy in expensive reserves of power. Also they do not tell you that wind power in fact has quite a substantial contribution to effective firm power station capacity.
Could Hinkley C spell the end of EDF?
By
Dave Toke
Further drastic losses on Hinkley C similar to the mounting losses accrued by AREVA and EDF on the EPRs being built in Finland (Olikuoto) and France (Flamanville) might lead to what hitherto has seemed unthinkable - the break up of EDF.
