Products electrical power | Founded 2009 | |
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Website horizonnuclearpower.com Profiles | ||
Horizon Nuclear Power is a British energy company that is expected to build new nuclear power stations in the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009, with its head office in Gloucester, and is now owned by Hitachi.
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Early history
The company was established in 2009 as an E.ON UK and RWE npower joint venture. The company announced its intention to install about 6,000 MWe of new nuclear capacities adjacent to the existing Wylfa and Oldbury nuclear power stations. Horizon initially evaluated building either Areva 1,650 MWe EPR reactors or Westinghouse 1,100 MWe AP1000 reactors between 2020 and 2024.
In March 2012 E.ON and RWE npower placed Horizon up for sale as a going concern. One bidder was a joint venture of China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group and the China National Nuclear Corporation.
However, on 29 October 2012 it was announced that Hitachi would buy Horizon for £696 million, and the sale was completed on 26 November 2012.
Hitachi ownership
Hitachi intends to build two to three 1,350 MWe Advanced Boiling Water Reactors (ABWR) on each site, but will first require a Generic Design Assessment for the ABWR by the Office for Nuclear Regulation, which is likely to take from two to four years. The assessment began in April 2013, with an agreement that the costs of assessment will be covered by Hitachi-GE. In August 2014, the proposed reactor type reached the third stage, out of four, in the GDA process. This processes should be fully completed in 2018.
Horizon in 2013 planned initial site work at Wylfa to begin in 2015, with building work starting in 2018 and generation starting in the mid-2020s. However later Horizon delayed the start of site work until after the Generic Design Assessment is completed.
In January 2016 Hitachi announced a new UK company, Hitachi Nuclear Energy Europe, to lead a proposed joint venture with Bechtel and JGC Corporation, to cover the engineering, procurement and construction of Horizon's nuclear plants in the UK. Horizon Nuclear Power will continue to work on obtaining regulatory consents and making commercial arrangements. However, later in the month Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman and chief executive of Hitachi, expressed serious concerns to Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond over financing the development, following EDF's difficulty in financing its Hinkley Point C nuclear power station development. Hitachi is currently negotiating with the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) on electricity price guarantees, called Contracts for Difference (CfD). The first project at Wylfa will be financed externally, with Hitachi only taking a minority stake.
In May 2016 Duncan Hawthorne, previously CEO of Bruce Power in Canada, was appointed CEO of Horizon. In February 2017 Horizon contracted U.S. Exelon to provide expert staff to assist in developing Horizon's nuclear operating model.