Rising renewables output makes promise to buy Hinkley Point electricity at twice its current price a costly gamble
It has always been difficult to see what was attractive about the proposed deal with EDF to build a nuclear reactor at Hinkley Point in Somerset. To bring this off the government is offering to sell 35 years of index-linked tax receipts to the French government to buy electricity at twice its current price.
This is a very big bet on the ability of EDF to build a reactor on time and to budget a feat they have never accomplished with the reactor type we are buying. It is an even bigger bet on the price of electricity doubling. If it fails to do so then the government will have to pay EDF even more subsidy.