Iberdrola Joins Other Firms in Buying a 469 Acre Site

It now seems that Iberdrola, which is the owner of Scottish Power, has joined up with rival energy supplier Scottish and Southern, as well as the French utility firm GdF, in paying out almost £70 million to buy a 469 acre site, which is called Sellafield. This big buy comes just after an auction that was run by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. This money will go towards the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority’s £75 billion clean up operation. This is an operation that is funded by taxpayers.

Apparently the companies are looking to build reactors with a total capacity of up to 3.6gw. This is enough to power about 3.5 million homes. If they receive permission to go ahead with planning, then it could start construction around 2015. This is now the third group that has acquired sites that are big enough for new reactors.

German firms npower, RWW and E.ON teamed up just earlier this year to buy three parcels of land from the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. It said that the sites were near existing nuclear reactors and cost £400 million. Then just last year, EDF Energy bought nuclear generator British Energy. Experts say that British Energy currently holds the best sites to build new nuclear reactors. Centrica has also taken up 20 percent stakes in the venture as well.

The lot that is adjoining the lot bought out by Iberadrola and the others is the least commercially attractive. This is a fact that has been reflected in the very low price tag for the lot. It has a grid connection that would have to be significantly upgraded to connect to a modern reactor of any kind. The site is also a remote site far from big cities and other potential electricity customers.