Chinese and French firms to bid for Horizon Nuclear project, say reports

The project, which covers sites at Wylfa on the Isle of Anglesey and at Oldbury-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, was put up for sale by current investors E.ON and RWE npower in March,

Luc Oursel, chief executive of French energy company Areva, told Reuters that the company was planning a joint £15 billion bid with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC).

"We will participate in the British Government's plan to make this project a reality, and we will probably do it with Chinese power companies and other players," he told the news agency. "Probably by the end of the year, the sellers will make public their choice for the team that will take over the project."

The Government restated its commitment to Horizon in May on a visit to the company's headquarters in Gloucester. Energy Minister Charles Hendry described the company as an "extremely attractive investment opportunity", whose staff was a "prized asset".

"There has already been strong interest in Horizon and we are making the Government's commitment to new nuclear clear to interested parties," he said at the time. "The launch of [the draft Energy Bill] has shown investors that we are prepared to take tough decisions to ensure confidence in our long-term vision for the electricity market."

E.ON and RWE npower, which each owned a 50% stake in Horizon, said in March that their decision to sell was based on "strategic grounds", including the knock-on financial effect of their native Germany's decision to phase out nuclear power following the explosions at Japan's Fukushima site in 2010.

Energy companies have called on the Government to quickly provide more information about proposed feed-in tariffs with contracts for difference (FiT CfDs), introduced in the draft Energy Bill to provide guaranteed prices for low-carbon forms of energy generation including nuclear. FiT CfDs, which will be set up between energy providers and the National Grid, acting as an independent 'system operator', will make payments with reference to a technology-dependent 'strike price' and a market reference price.

Nuclear power generation currently accounts for 15% of the UK's electricity generation capacity, however this figure will be reduced to zero by 2035 as existing nuclear power stations reach the end of their working lives. The existing Oldbury nuclear power station was decommissioned earlier this year, while the current reactor at Wylfa is due to stop producing energy in 2014.