Brussels, 04/03/2015(Agence Europe) - Greenpeace Energy, a German supplier of green electricity affiliated to the NGO Greenpeace, said on Wednesday 4 March that it would mount a legal challenge to the green light given by the European Commission to subsidies for the construction of an EPR nuclear power plant at Hinkley Point, United Kingdom (see EUROPE 11172).
The highly subsidised nuclear electricity generated there will do significant harm to competition, said the head of Greenpeace Energy, Sönke Tangermann, in a press release. He says that prices on the electricity exchange will be affected in Germany too. Since the move will have a damaging effect on suppliers of green energy, like his company, Greenpeace Energy will refer the matter to the courts, he went on. The company, set up by Greenpeace in 1999 but independent of it, is also looking to bring on board other companies to lodge a collective complaint at the European Court of Justice.
Complaints can only be lodged after publication in the Official Journal of the EU of the European Commission decision. In October 2014, the Commission gave the go-ahead in principle to the construction by French group EDF of the new Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant, with UK government subsidies. The Commission estimated the cost of the project at some €31 billion, rather than the €19 billion advanced by EDF and the British authorities. (Lionel Changeur)