More delays and cost hikes have hit the U.K.’s project to build the 3,260-MW Hinkley Point C plant nuclear project in Sommerset, England. The French state-controlled project owner Electricité de France now says first electricity generation will start at least four years later than originally planned and cost around 70% more.
When the U.K. government approved the project in September 2016, EDF forecast completion in 2025 at a cost of $23 billion. In its latest update on Jan. 23, the company forecast completion between 2029 and 2031 with costs rising to $39 to 43 billion—up from a revised mid 2022 forecast that had already pushed completion back to June 2027 and revised the cost up to around $32 billion at 2015 prices.