Spectator letters: EDF answers Peter Atherton, Christopher Booker on wildlife

Nuclear reaction

Sir: Peter Atherton questions whether a new nuclear power station at Hinkley Point is a fair deal for the UK (‘Nuclear fallout’, 22 February). However, his conclusion is based on some unvalidated assumptions. In May 2012, he wrote that EDF would need £166 for each megawatt hour of electricity produced to get a ‘realistic return’. Now he says that an agreed price of £92.50 offers rewards which are ‘eyewateringly attractive’.

Neither claim is justified. It is a balanced deal which will unlock £16 billion of investment at the lowest possible cost for consumers. He claims returns to investors of up to 35 per cent. As reported last October, target project returns are 10 per cent and, with borrowing, equity investors may achieve closer to 15 per cent. These investors will take the risk of delivering the project on budget and also face risks on the performance of the station when built. There are in-built mechanisms to reduce the customer price if higher returns prove achievable.

Hinkley Point C will deliver secure, reliable power, meeting 7 per cent of Britain’s electricity needs. It will be ready just as existing low-carbon nuclear stations are coming to the end of their lives. It will provide a massive boost to the economy and the British nuclear industry. For consumers and industry, it saves money in comparison to other forms of low-carbon energy.

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Samuel Gregg

The welcome fall of Klaus Schwab

And is inflation-linking really so strange for a deal lasting until 2058? A pint of beer cost the equivalent of ten pence 45 years ago. No one expects to pay that today.
Paul Spence
Director of Strategy & Corporate Affairs
EDF Energy

Even the fish are drowning

Sir: Well done, Melissa Kite, for her very entertaining piece on how the flooding of my county of Somerset has been made infinitely worse by a policy designed to put the interests of wildlife above those of people (‘Really wild excuses’, 22 February).