UK’s Sizewell C achieves financing landmark

How the new plant could look (Image: Sizewell C)

The Sizewell C project to build two of EDF’s EPR reactors on England’s east coast has reached Financial Close, including GBP5 billion (USD6.5 billion) in export credit financing by BpifranceAE as well as debt financing from the UK’s National Wealth Fund.

France's EDF, announcing the financial closing of the project, said it would invest a maximum of GBP1.1 billion during the construction period and would have a stake of 12.5%, with the UK government having 44.9%, La Caisse 20%, Centrica 15% and Amber Infrastructure 7.6%.

It added: "EDF will not invest new cash at financial close due to the reimbursement of the development costs incurred since 2015 and a payment in return for the Hinkley Point C project expertise that Sizewell C benefits from, as well as the series effect."

Thirteen banks have supported the GBP5 billion debt raise: ABN Amro Bank; Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria; Santander CIB; BNP Paribas; Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank; CaixaBank; Citibank; Crédit Industriel et Commercial; HSBC Bank; Lloyds Bank; National Westminster Bank; Natixis and Societe Generale.

Sizewell C said "this landmark moment sees funding for the project beginning to flow, unlocking full-scale construction of the Suffolk-based plant".

The plan is for the estimated GBP38 billion Sizewell C plant to feature two EPR reactors producing 3.2 GW of electricity, enough to power the equivalent of around six million homes for at least 60 years. It would be a similar design to the two-unit plant being built at Hinkley Point C in Somerset, with the aim of building it more quickly and at lower cost as a result of the experience gained from what is the first new nuclear construction project in the UK for about three decades. A final investment decision for the Sizewell C project was taken in July this year.

Sizewell C has used the Regulated Asset Base (RAB) funding model, which will see consumers contributing towards the cost of new nuclear power plants during the construction phase. Under the previous Contracts for Difference system developers finance the construction of a nuclear project and only begin receiving revenue when the power plant starts generating electricity.

Sizewell C said the "financing model attracts private investment that would not otherwise be possible. Government estimates that using the RAB can save consumers GBP30 billion, compared with other models, as a result of lower financing costs".

UK Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said: "By backing nuclear we are creating thousands of high-quality jobs across the country, supporting British supply chains and keeping the lights on with homegrown energy for generations to come."

Tom Greatrex, Chief Executive of the Nuclear Industry Association, the trade association for the UK’s civil nuclear industry, said: "Reaching financial close for Sizewell C is a landmark moment for the UK's clean energy future. It proves that new nuclear can attract significant investment - a vital step towards energy security, skilled jobs, and achieving net zero. The financing model used for Sizewell C is crucial to unlocking further private investment in new nuclear projects, cutting our reliance on fossil fuels, and driving an industrial revival across Britain."

EDF also noted the wider benefits for the French state-owned group: "The EDF group will contribute to the project as a supplier of engineering studies (EDF/Edvance), the main primary circuit including the nuclear boiler, steam generators and safety control system (Framatome) and, for the conventional island, the turbo-alternator unit (Arabelle Solutions). For the French nuclear industry more broadly with some 40 French suppliers, it will help to perpetuate skills, capitalise on experience and generate economies of scale for the EPR2 programme in France."Sizewell C said that Clifford Chance acted as legal adviser, Rothschild & Co acted as lead financial adviser across equity, debt and credit ratings, and BNP Paribas acted as joint debt financial adviser to Sizewell C on the capital raise. HSBC acted as French Authorities and Green Loan Coordinator, alongside Santander CIB as Documentation Coordinator on the GBP5 billion export credit backed facility. UK’s Sizewell C achieves financing landmark

Read More........ → November 13, 2025

India emerging as global leader on green path to growth

IANS Photo

New Delhi, September 17 (IANS): India is rapidly emerging as a global leader in sustainable development, as it is not just following the global climate agenda but developing its own positive approach to a green future as a pathway to economic prosperity and a strong nation.

By combining strong political leadership, a thriving private sector, and a deeply rooted philosophical connection to nature, India is proving that a green future is not only possible but also a direct route to prosperity and power, according to an article by Erik Solheim in India Narrative.

This transformation is driven by a powerful combination of factors: strong political will, a vibrant business sector, and an engaged civil society. Far from being a burden, this green shift is seen as a pathway to economic prosperity and national strength, a message framed not around the fear of climate change but the promise of a brighter, more prosperous future, the article states.

It also points out that India has been unfairly accused of hindering international climate talks and blamed for a crisis it contributed very little to. The reality is that the per capita emissions of the United States are currently 25 times higher than India’s. This disparity highlights the arrogance of those who point fingers at India while ignoring their own historical and current responsibilities.

The article highlights that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reframed the climate debate. Instead of focusing on the dire consequences of climate change — like droughts or floods — his message is one of opportunity. He speaks of a future where every Indian is lifted out of poverty, a thriving middle class emerges, and India takes its rightful place as a powerful nation on the world stage. Crucially, this vision is anchored in green technologies — solar, wind, electric cars, and other renewables. This positive, aspirational message resonates far more deeply than one built on fear and sacrifice.

It states that this shift in messaging is a lesson the world should learn from. It turns climate action from a negative, problem-focused agenda into a positive, inspiring one. The absence of a significant “climate denial” movement in India, unlike in many Western countries, further strengthens this approach.

The article underlines the success that India has achieved in setting up solar, wind and hydro power projects to fight climate change.

India’s green progress is not just a top-down mandate; it’s a nationwide movement with remarkable success stories unfolding across different states.

It mentions Gujarat as a front-runner, with an ambitious goal of generating 100 GW of solar energy by 2030. This alone would make it one of the largest renewable energy economies in the world if it were a separate nation. Tamil Nadu is making strides in restoring its windmills and has embarked on a large-scale mangrove restoration project while Madhya Pradesh hosts some of the country’s most innovative green projects. This includes a 150 MW floating solar plant on the Omkareshwar dam in Khandwa and India’s first solar village, Sanchi.

Besides, Andhra Pradesh, like Gujarat, is a leader in solar energy generation with significant capacity installed and Uttar Pradesh is focusing on hydro and pumped storage and has made strides in greening its agriculture sector.

The article also points out that the deep-rooted connection between Indian philosophy and nature plays a significant role in this green transformation. The ancient Hindu philosophy of Dharma venerates the environment, viewing humans as an integral part of nature rather than superior to it.

This contrasts sharply with some Western traditions, which historically have viewed humans as being “above” nature, free to exploit it for their own ends, the article adds.Erik Solheim, the author of the article, is a well-known global leader on environment and development as well as an experienced peace negotiator. He served as Norwegian minister of Environment and International Development from 2005-2012. India emerging as global leader on green path to growth | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com

Read More........ → November 04, 2025

A US startup plans to deliver ‘sunlight on demand’ after dark. Can it work – and would we want it to?

Can a new satellite constellation create sunlight on demand? SpaceX/Flickr, CC BY-ND Michael J. I. Brown, Monash University and Matthew Kenworthy, Leiden University

A proposed constellation of satellites has astronomers very worried. Unlike satellites that reflect sunlight and produce light pollution as an unfortunate byproduct, the ones by US startup Reflect Orbital would produce light pollution by design.

The company promises to produce “sunlight on demand” with mirrors that beam sunlight down to Earth so solar farms can operate after sunset.

It plans to start with an 18-metre test satellite named Earendil-1 which the company has applied to launch in 2026. It would eventually be followed by about 4,000 satellites in orbit by 2030, according to the latest reports.

So how bad would the light pollution be? And perhaps more importantly, can Reflect Orbital’s satellites even work as advertised?

Bouncing sunlight

Sunlight can be bounced off a wristwatch to produce a spot of light . M. Brown

In the same way you can bounce sunlight off a watch face to produce a spot of light, Reflect Orbital’s satellites would use mirrors to beam light onto a patch of Earth.

But the scale involved is vastly different. Reflect Orbital’s satellites would orbit about 625km above the ground, and would eventually have mirrors 54 metres across.

When you bounce light off your watch onto a nearby wall, the spot of light can be very bright. But if you bounce it onto a distant wall, the spot becomes larger – and dimmer.

This is because the Sun is not a point of light, but spans half a degree in angle in the sky. This means that at large distances, a beam of sunlight reflected off a flat mirror spreads out with an angle of half a degree.

What does that mean in practice? Let’s take a satellite reflecting sunlight over a distance of roughly 800km – because a 625km-high satellite won’t always be directly overhead, but beaming the sunlight at an angle. The illuminated patch of ground would be at least 7km across.

Even a curved mirror or a lens can’t focus the sunlight into a tighter spot due to the distance and the half-degree angle of the Sun in the sky.

Would this reflected sunlight be bright or dim? Well, for a single 54 metre satellite it will be 15,000 times fainter than the midday Sun, but this is still far brighter than the full Moon.

Mylar reflectors can be unfolded in orbit. Josh Spradling/The Planetary Society, CC BY

The balloon test

Last year, Reflect Orbital’s founder Ben Nowack posted a short video which summarised a test with the “last thing to build before moving into space”. It was a reflector carried on a hot air balloon.

In the test, a flat, square mirror roughly 2.5 metres across directs a beam of light down to solar panels and sensors. In one instance the team measures 516 watts of light per square metre while the balloon is at a distance of 242 metres.

For comparison, the midday Sun produces roughly 1,000 watts per square metre. So 516 watts per square metre is about half of that, which is enough to be useful.

However, let’s scale the balloon test to space. As we noted earlier, if the satellites were 800km from the area of interest, the reflector would need to be 6.5km by 6.5km – 42 square kilometres. It’s not practical to build such a giant reflector, so the balloon test has some limitations.

So what is Reflect Orbital planning to do?

Reflect Orbital’s plan is “simple satellites in the right constellation shining on existing solar farms”. And their goal is only 200 watts per square metre – 20% of the midday Sun.

Can smaller satellites deliver? If a single 54 metre satellite is 15,000 times fainter than the midday Sun, you would need 3,000 of them to achieve 20% of the midday Sun. That’s a lot of satellites to illuminate one region.

Another issue: satellites at a 625km altitude move at 7.5 kilometres per second. So a satellite will be within 1,000km of a given location for no more than 3.5 minutes.

This means 3,000 satellites would give you a few minutes of illumination. To provide even an hour, you’d need thousands more.

Reflect Orbital isn’t lacking ambition. In one interview, Nowack suggested 250,000 satellites in 600km high orbits. That’s more than all the currently catalogued satellites and large pieces of space junk put together.

And yet, that vast constellation would deliver only 20% of the midday Sun to no more than 80 locations at once, based on our calculations above. In practice, even fewer locations would be illuminated due to cloudy weather.

Additionally, given their altitude, the satellites could only deliver illumination to most locations near dusk and dawn, when the mirrors in low Earth orbit would be bathed in sunlight. Aware of this, Reflect Orbital plan for their constellation to encircle Earth above the day-night line in sun-synchronous orbits to keep them continuously in sunlight.

Cheaper rockets have enabled the deployment of satellite constellations. SpaceX/Flickr, CC BY-NC

Bright lights

So, are mirrored satellites a practical means to produce affordable solar power at night? Probably not. Could they produce devastating light pollution? Absolutely.

In the early evening it doesn’t take long to spot satellites and space junk – and they’re not deliberately designed to be bright. With Reflect Orbital’s plan, even if just the test satellite works as planned, it will sometimes appear far brighter than the full Moon.

A constellation of such mirrors would be devastating to astronomy and dangerous to astronomers. To anyone looking through a telescope the surface of each mirror could be almost as bright as the surface of the Sun, risking permanent eye damage.

The light pollution will hinder everyone’s ability to see the cosmos and light pollution is known to impact the daily rhythms of animals as well.

Although Reflect Orbital aims to illuminate specific locations, the satellites’ beams would also sweep across Earth when moving from one location to the next. The night sky could be lit up with flashes of light brighter than the Moon.

The company did not reply to The Conversation about these concerns within deadline. However, it told Bloomberg this week it plans to redirect sunlight in ways that are “brief, predictable and targeted”, avoiding observatories and sharing the locations of the satellites so scientists can plan their work.

The consequences would be dire

It remains to be seen whether Reflect Orbital’s project will get off the ground. The company may launch a test satellite, but it’s a long way from that to getting 250,000 enormous mirrors constantly circling Earth to keep some solar farms ticking over for a few extra hours a day.

Still, it’s a project to watch. The consequences of success for astronomers – and anyone else who likes the night sky dark – would be dire.

The number of satellites visible in the evening has skyrocketed.

Michael J. I. Brown, Associate Professor in Astronomy, Monash University and Matthew Kenworthy, Associate Professor in Astronomy, Leiden University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Read More........ → October 17, 2025