Poland to push for Ignalina stake

Up to a quarter of the proposed Ignalina nuclear station in Lithuania could be financed by Poland under a co-financing deal unveiled at a recent seminar.

The 800 - 1600 MWe Ignalia in early development by Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia will replace the aging Ignalina 2 which is due to be decommissioned in 2009. If it comes to fruition, the Polish involvement is expected to accelerate the development as it is understood to be anxious to have the station operating before 2015. However, some of the Baltic partners are belived to be sceptical of Polish inclusion over concerns that too much energy from the plant would be diverted to Poland.

The move came as a preliminary agreement on a Baltic-Poland HVDC transmission link was signed, joining the Baltic and Nordic networks to western European transmission networks.

The 400 kV connection is expected to cost about €304 million and be operational by 2011, with partial financing by the European Union.

Source:neimagazine.com