Fresh details were unveiled yesterday of a new German nuclear power joint venture that aims to invest £15 billion and create 11,000 jobs in the UK energy industry over the next 15 years.

Horizon Nuclear Power will be the name of the company formed this month from a 50-50 joint venture between E.ON and RWE npower, Germany’s biggest utility companies.

The Gloucester-based company aims to develop two new nuclear power stations at Wylfa, in Anglesey, and Oldbury-on-Severn, in Gloucestershire, with a combined generating capacity of about 6,000 megawatts, enough to power a city the size of London. The first reactor is expected to go online in 2020.

RWE and E.ON announced the partnership this year and have acquired land to develop the plants on existing nuclear sites.

They expect each site to support about 800 permanent jobs and as many as 10,000 temporary jobs during the construction phase.

E.ON and RWE have interests in 23 nuclear reactors in Germany and Sweden, including two jointly owned reactors at Gundremmingen and one at Lingen.

Although they have not yet settled on reactor technology, they are expected to select a different type for each site.

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