{"id":16744,"date":"2025-07-23T00:55:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:55:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/16744\/"},"modified":"2025-07-23T00:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T00:55:07","slug":"caisse-invests-up-to-3-2-billion-in-sizewell-c-nuclear-plant-in-u-k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/16744\/","title":{"rendered":"Caisse invests up to $3.2-billion in Sizewell C nuclear plant in U.K."},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A view shows construction work on the site of the Sizewell C nuclear power plant. The British government will remain the largest shareholder of the project.Chris Radburn\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Quebec\u2019s largest pension-fund manager is investing up to $3.2-billion in a new nuclear power plant in eastern England, cementing itself as the second-largest owner of a major green-energy development across the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

The Sizewell C project in Suffolk has been batted around for 15 years, but the British government struggled to secure the investment needed for such a large infrastructure project. <\/p>\n

With the new financing, the Caisse de d\u00e9p\u00f4t et placement du Qu\u00e9bec will hold a 20-per-cent stake, while British-based energy firm Centrica PLC will own 15 per cent, France\u2019s state-owned EDF will hold 12.5 per cent and investment manager Amber Infrastructure Group will hold 7.6 per cent.<\/p>\n

The British government will remain the largest shareholder, with a 44.9-per-cent stake.<\/p>\n

Construction of Sizewell C is expected to be completed in the mid-to-late 2030s and the 3.2-gigawatt plant will deliver enough energy to power the equivalent of six million homes, generating \u00a32-billion ($3.68-billion) in electricity savings a year, according to the British government<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The project is also expected to cut nine million tonnes of carbon emissions annually, according to the Caisse, equivalent to the emissions of nearly two million cars.<\/p>\n

Despite the clean-energy benefits, nuclear power plants fell out of favour with many governments over the past two decades, often because of safety concerns and cost overruns. <\/p>\n

On the safety front, in 2011 a powerful earthquake off Japan\u2019s eastern coast triggered a tsunami that ultimately flooded the reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, creating a radiation leak. As for rising costs, nuclear plants come with heavy price tags, and they are prone to delays and soaring construction expenses.<\/p>\n

Researchers at Boston University\u2019s Institute for Global Sustainability<\/a> examined hundreds of energy projects, and found that nuclear power plants were the worst for cost overruns and time delays, on average exceeding original cost projections by 102.5 per cent, or more than double. <\/p>\n

However, nuclear energy is experiencing a resurgence, particularly in Britain and Europe, where skyrocketing energy prices after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine prompted a rethink of a long-standing reluctance to rely on nuclear power.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis government is making the investment needed to deliver a new golden age of nuclear, so we can end delays and free us from the ravages of the global fossil fuel markets to bring bills down for good,\u201d Ed Miliband, the British Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, said in a statement Tuesday.<\/p>\n

But governments must still clear the financing hurdles. Potential financial backers of nuclear projects are often scared to invest because they do not want to shoulder cost overruns. In Britain, costs of the Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant in Somerset<\/a> have climbed from an estimated \u00a318-billion to about \u00a346-billion ($84.7-billion).<\/p>\n

To address the financial concerns, the British government is using an emerging funding model for Sizewell C. The development uses a regulated-asset-base model where companies building new plants are paid during the construction phase, reducing their development risk and allowing them to secure cheaper financing.<\/p>\n

To pay for these costs throughout construction, the British government will add around \u00a31 ($1.84) a month to current consumer bills.<\/p>\n

Once completed, Sizewell C will be only the second nuclear power plant built in Britain in more than two decades. In May, 2020, the project was estimated to cost \u00a320-billion ($34.4-billion), according to a report from EDF<\/a>, but the price has doubled to \u00a338-billion ($70.1-billion) in 2024 figures.<\/p>\n

With reports from Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: A view shows construction work on the site of the Sizewell C nuclear…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16745,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,45,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-16744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16744"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16744\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}