Spanish utility Iberdrola has announced plans to divest itself of the NNB Development Company, a Belgium-based nuclear new-build consortium shared 50:50 with French utility GDF Suez.
The consortium owns NuGeneration Ltd (NuGen), which is planning to develop a site adjacent to Sellafield in West Cumbria called Moorside with up to 3.6 GW of power.
[Picture: Moorfields land to the north and west of the Sellafield site, West Cumbria]Iberdrola said that it signed an agreement with Toshiba for the deal on 21 December worth £85 million or EUR 102 million. It also said that the deal is subject to obtaining the extension of the options rights on the Moorside site, and that the deal was part of Iberdrola’s strategy of divestment of non-strategic assets.
Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse was competing for a nuclear new-build contract from the UK’s Horizon Nuclear Power for its AP1000 reactor design, until Horizon’s utility owners sold it to rival Japanese vendor Hitachi in 2012. The AP1000 reactor went through most of the phases of the UK’s generic design assessment process, but was halted while waiting for a vendor.
A NuGeneration Ltd spokesman had no comment on the deal, and neither Iberdrola, Toshiba, nor GDF Suez have issued press releases. Moreover, the Iberdrola announcement said that the final price paid may vary from the stated value, because it is subject to ‘customary adjustments in operations of this nature’. It is therefore unlikely that the deal has been completed.
