Hinkley Point C: Tim Malloch reports on a French letter & corporate chaos
In February, a family in Swansea became the first family in the UK to own a Tesla Powerwall. The home storage battery has been described as the missing link for solar energy. It allows homes to store the electricity generated by their solar panels during the day until it is needed later when demand is higher (5 February, The Guardian).
A month later, corporate chaos breaks out at EDF. The energy giant, 85% owned by the French government, is trying to build a new nuclear power station in the UK—Hinkley Point C (HPC) —but it cannot bring itself to commit to a Final Investment Decision (FID). The HPC project director, Chris Bakken, and EDF's finance director, Thomas Piquemal, have both resigned. To lose one director is unfortunate, but to lose two in such close proximity seems like carelessness.
On 10 March, Bakken wrote to The Times to rebut the suggestion that he resigned because he did not have full faith in EDF's plans to build HPC.
