France’s state-run utility EDF announced an increase in the cost of its Hinkley Point C nuclear power station in the UK to £46 bln and a delay to 2030. France is pressing the UK to help plug the multibillion-pound hole. Britain’s five nuclear power stations account for 14% of the country’s electricity mix. By the end of 2028, only one of those will still be open.

Electricity production will need to increase from 2,905 TWh in 2021 to 6,922 TWh in 2050 because of electric vehicles and heat pumps, according to the European Commission. This will require investment in the energy system of €1.5 trillion per year and 500,000 tons of copper, 80,000 tons of lithium and 60,000 tons of cobalt, according to a study.