The head of Poland’s largest power utility has said the company will begin taking bids for the country’s first nuclear plant in the coming weeks.
Reuters quoted Polska Grupa Energetyczna SA chief executive Wojciech Ostrowski as saying it will tender bids within two months. The company has been planning to build two Generation III reactors generating a total of 3,000 megawatts at the plant.
The utility has aimed to sign a contract and select a site by 2013, pouring the first concrete in 2016, according to the World Nuclear Association. An inland site at Zarnowiec and coastal sites at Choczewo and Gaski are under consideration. The bidders are expected to include GE-Hitachi, Westinghouse, Areva and KEPCO.
Aside from two incomplete Soviet-era units, Poland has never operated a nuclear power plant. With the largest coal reserves in the European Union, almost all of its power generation comes from fossil sources, according to the World Nuclear Association. Facing an expected 54 percent increase in power demand in the next two decades and EU greenhouse gas restrictions, the Polish government in 2009 envisioned 4.6 gigawatts of new nuclear power generation at two sites by 2030.