In the past couple of days three major European energy companies (Centrica, GDF Suez, and Total Petroleum Company) have announced partnerships with EDF (Electricite de France). These partnerships will provide EDF with several billion euros of capital to support their development of new nuclear plant development projects in the UK and France. Similar announcements, which directly contradict the misinformation provided by anti-nuclear organizations about the lack of investor interest in nuclear power, continue piling up.
An interesting facet of the announcements is that they are coming from companies built on a durable interest and vast expertise in producing and selling reliable energy, not from the purely financial players that inhabit places like Wall Street and The City of London. That is only natural; people in the energy business tend to be long term thinkers who are confident that they produce a commodity whose fundamental importance in world economic development is not in question, even if the industry’s prosperity fluctuates more than the normal business cycle.
Financial investors often prefer industries that are more fashionable and provide the opportunity to get rich quick and retire before there is any obligation to deliver a useful product.
Frost and Sullivan, a global consulting company with more than 1700 industry consultants, market research analysts, technology analysts and economists focused on providing customers with targeted market intelligence to enable them to grow their markets and expand their production capability, believes that the nuclear industry is going to provide substantial opportunities.
That prediction is difficult to dispute – unless you are in a stage of complete denial.
