Two initiatives to build new nuclear power stations in the Netherlands will have to rely on private sector funding only, economic affairs minister Maxime Verhagen is quoted as saying in the Volkskrant.

The decision is part of the cabinet´s new strategy of making energy producers self sufficient, the paper said. Grants for solar power and wind turbines have also all but dried up since the new government was sworn in.
However, Verhagen said the government will decide on the two applications in time for building to begin in 2015.

Two projects
The former shareholders of energy company Essent – a number of local and provincial councils – said in September they are starting procedures to build a new plant. Essent is now owned by RWE.
The councils are shareholders in Energy Resource Holding, which owns half of Borssele, the Netherlands only nuclear power station.
Power firm Delta, which owns the other half of Borssele, has similar plans to build a second nuclear power station. Those plans were announced last year.