(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors)Green energy campaigners have hit out at a controversial deal with China to build a new nuclear power plant in south-west England. Greenpeace said the agreement to construct the station at Hinkley Point in Somerset made no economic sense because it was vastly more expensive than solar or wind energy. Chinese president Xi Jinping and British prime minister David Cameron unveiled the deal in London on Wednesday. Under the proposals China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN) will pay £6bn for a one-third stake in the £18bn project with French utility EDF holding the rest. EDF may sell another 15% of the scheme but will stay as its majority investor. The deal also includes eventual construction of two other stations in Suffolk and Essex. Cameron insisted that the project would create 25000 jobs and provide enough energy to power six million homes. But critics say the £92.50 per megawatt hour of power that the government has guaranteed to pay for Hinkley's output for 35 years is double what consumers currently pay. David Elmes of Warwick Business School said: "The government's argument that cutting subsidies for solar and wind today 'to keep bills as low as possible for hard-working families and businesses' is hard to square with signing deals that commit the same families and businesses to high prices for decades." The deal comes after the government announced plans in July to slash subsidies for solar power and onshore wind farms. The cuts sparked fears that growing solar and wind energy generators will go out of business because subsidies are being withdrawn too early. One such company has already gone into administration with the loss of 900 jobs. Greenpeace UK chief scientist Dr Doug Parr said: "There's no end in sight for the nuclear industry's dependence on billion-pound handouts whilst the renewable sector is on the verge of going subsidy free. Backing the former and punishing the latter makes no economic sense whatsoever. "Our grandchildren will one day wonder why their bills are propping up a foreign-owned outdated and costly nuclear industry instead of supporting cutting-edge UK firms producing cheap clean energy." A Friends of the Earth spokesman said: "While Cameron is lavishly wining and dining the nuclear industry the UK renewable industry has been left to survive on crumbs threatening tens of thousands of jobs." But others say the announcement could benefit British companies who would supply materials for the new plants. AJ Bell's investment director Russ Mould said companies with nuclear supply businesses such as Babcock International (LON:BAB) and Hayward Tyler (LON:HAYT) and engineering groups Redhall (LON:RHL) and Hill & Smith (LON:HILS) could cash in. Mould said: "Solihull's Hill & Smith is perhaps best-known for its motorway crash barriers but the FTSE small cap is a specialist in galvanised steel and the average nuclear power plant requires 30000 tonnes of the stuff."
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