European nuclear new build outlook might increase even more than already expected

In the recent study “Nuclear Business Opportunities for Suppliers“ (published mid of June 2013), xCon Partners estimates 370 new nuclear power plant units to be built worldwide until 2030, corresponding to a market potential of 1.5 billion Euro. Asia is expected to pursue the most ambitious plans with the construction of 233 new units – for Europe, 78 new units are expected. Current considerations of the European Commission for Competition to allow state subsidization of nuclear new build projects would provide new impulses for the European nuclear market to grow even beyond the current study assumptions.

The energy sector is a highly competitive and cost-intensive business field that requires long-term planning. This is especially true for construction and operation of nuclear power plants. Depending on the specific project, planning and construction time combined is in the range of 8 to 20 years, the following operation period on average takes about 45 years. Those time frames are beyond typical legislative periods and socio-political sentiments. Combined with uncertain construction costs, running easily into several billion Euros, this led to increasing restraints of investors in the recent years.

Increased number of nuclear new build projects despite high and uncertain cost

The European Commission for Competition is currently planning a legal set of rules which would ease financing of nuclear new build projects in Europe by allowing e.g. state cash injections. This plan mainly supports European countries with nuclear energy still being an inherent part of their energy mix, but also countries trying to enter the nuclear market and hence seeking additional financing sources for their future nuclear projects could benefit from these EU activities.

“Due to increasingly strict safety regulations in Europe, construction costs for a new nuclear power plant have increased significantly”, explains Jan Junker, Partner at xCon Partners with an extensive nuclear project history. In fact, many of the project budgets had to be adjusted upwards several times as the example of the Finish new build project Olkiluoto 3 impressively demonstrates: Originally calculated costs have almost tripled to currently expected 8.5 billion Euros. This causes an increasing uncertainty for investors as well as for the numerous nuclear suppliers.

Investment security due to transparency on worldwide nuclear market by using xNuke

A new Business-Intelligence-Tool called “xNuke” provides transparency of the complex nuclear market. It has been developed by xCon Partners to allow graphical and company specific analyses of the worldwide nuclear power plant status – from early planning phases to operation and decommissioning. “The tool addresses a wide range of customers by offering unique analytical possibilities to facilitate fact and market data driven investment decisions in the nuclear market. Moreover, new target projects exactly fitting a company’s individual profile can be identified, hence providing the basis to increase the company’s worldwide nuclear market footprint”, enthuses Jan Junker about the possibilities offered by xNuke. The innovative analytics tool can be tested free of charge and without any obligations at xCon Partners GmbH.

xCon Partners GmbH

xCon Partners is a strategy and management consulting firm focusing on Business-IT-Alignment – We link business and IT! We offer a combination of in-depth experience in international management and strategy consulting and special know-how in the CIO and CTO area of information and technology management.

Our clients benefit from a cooperative consulting approach, always considering the individual and unique situation of the client. Our extensive partner network gives us on-demand access to further industry specific and functional know-how whenever needed. With office locations across Germany (Bremen, Wiesbaden and Munich), we are proud to serve our DAX 30 and mid-sized customers with close distance and perfect reachability.

xNuke

xNuke stands for “eXplore Nuclear”, referring to a nuclear market intelligence solution developed by xCon Partners. It has been developed to serve our nuclear market clients as a worldwide overview of all planned and ongoing new build projects, operating nuclear power plants, as well as upcoming and ongoing decommissioning projects. With this industry wide unique database of the whole nuclear market provided in an interactive visual intelligence tool, xNuke delivers the basis for future-oriented investment decisions into a market with a very promising outlook.

In combination with our extensive nuclear market experience and optional consulting services, it allows our clients to realize sustainable competitive advantages in the nuclear market. Please feel free to contact us – we will provide you with additional information of our consulting services and our xNuke database – and we will set up an individual xNuke demo account if needed