The government is launching a last-ditch attempt to sign up energy companies to build new nuclear power stations by proposing to sign contracts guaranteeing subsidies for up to 40 years, London 's Guardian newspaper reports, without citing its sources.

The coalition agreement reached between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in 2010 promised that nuclear power stations would be built only if the industry got no public subsidy, but costly overruns for new reactors overseas and the exit of several major utilities from the U.K. program, most recently Centrica (CNA.LN), have driven ministers and officials to backtrack on that pledge and accept they will have to provide financial support, the paper says.

The Guardian says it has learned that ministers, intent on keeping the guaranteed wholesale cost of each unit of energy below the politically crucial figure of 100 pounds ($155) per megawatt hour, are proposing to extend contracts from the 20 years originally envisaged to at least 30 and possibly as long as 40 years.

Διαβάστε ακόμα