Rolls-Royce raises almost £200m for low carbon nuclear power stations

A consortium led by Rolls-Royce has raised almost £200 million to create a new business delivering mini nuclear power stations.

A total of £195 million of private equity funding has been put together by the engineering giant, along with BNF Resources UK and Exelon Generation, to establish the low cost, low carbon Rolls-Royce Small Nuclear Reactor (SMR) business.

It means the SMR business can go on to secure a further £210 million of UK Research and Innovation funding.

Rolls-Royce, which has its civil aerospace and defence divisions in Derby, has said that the SMR business would create 40,000 UK jobs when fully operational by 2050 and generate £52 billion in economic benefit.

Chief executive Warren East said: “The SMR programme is one of the ways that Rolls-Royce is meeting the need to ensure the UK continues to develop innovative ways to tackle the global threat of climate change.”

The SMR business will now begin to identify sites for the factories, which will manufacture the modules that enable on-site assembly of the power plants.

Rolls-Royce said that discussions will continue with the Government on identifying the delivery models that will enable long-term investment in the technology.

And it will be engaging with export customers across many continents who need this technology to meet their own net zero commitments.

Mr East said: “With the Rolls-Royce SMR technology, we have developed a clean energy solution which can deliver cost competitive and scalable net zero power for multiple applications from grid and industrial electricity production to hydrogen and synthetic fuel manufacturing.

“The business could create up to 40,000 jobs, through UK deployment and export enabled growth.

“As a major shareholder in Rolls-Royce SMR, we will continue to support its path to successful deployment.”

Business and Energy Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for the UK to deploy more low carbon energy than ever before and ensure greater energy independence.

“Small Modular Reactors offer exciting opportunities to cut costs and build more quickly, ensuring we can bring clean electricity to people’s homes and cut our already-dwindling use of volatile fossil fuels even further.

“In working with Rolls-Royce, we are proud to back the largest engineering collaboration the UK has ever seen – uniting some of the most respected and innovating organisations on the planet.

“Not only can we maximise British content, create new intellectual property and reinvigorate supply chains, but also position our country as a global leader in innovative nuclear technologies we can potentially export elsewhere.

“By harnessing British engineering and ingenuity, we can double down on our plan to deploy more home-grown, affordable clean energy in this country.”

It is hoped that the first power stations will be available to the UK grid in the early 2030s. Each one would be capable of powering around a million homes.

Tom Samson, chief executive of Rolls-Royce SMR, said: “Rolls-Royce SMR has been established to deliver a low cost, deployable, scalable and investable programme of new nuclear power plants.

“Our transformative approach to delivering nuclear power, based on predictable factory-built components, is unique and the nuclear technology is proven.

“Investors see a tremendous opportunity to decarbonise the UK through stable baseload nuclear power, in addition to fulfilling a vital export need as countries identify nuclear as an opportunity to decarbonise.

“The capitalisation of Rolls-Royce SMR takes us a step closer to achieving a unique, and most importantly investable, proposition in nuclear energy.

“It is a major vote of confidence in British nuclear technology and the potential for building a world-leading domestic supply chain.”