UK Energy Policy and a possible share to capitalise in the long term.

Picked up an interesting idea from last week's Mail on Sunday with a small page filling article on the possible impact of "green energy" on our bills (http://www.thisismoney.co.uk: Greener energy is predicted to push fuel bills up by £200 a year).
I have seen quite few articles in recent weeks focussing on the premium that green energy will cost focussing primarily on the maintaining of "reserve" fossil fuel power stations for those times when the wind, sun or tides aren't sufficient to generate the required amount of electricity.


What stuck out for me in this article was that, should the Government focus on incentivising low carbon generation, then a major beneficiary could be EDF as nuclear (for all its faults and dangers), doesn't emit any greenhouse gas. Additionally, it doesn't stop generating when the wind drops, the sky darkens, or the seas calm.


The first 2 of 4 are planned for 2017 and could cost up to £10bn each to construct.
Quoted on the French stock exchange, Electicite de France at 26 Euro's, are on a forecast Price / Earnings ratio of 14.5 times (2012: 12.3), and have a forecast yield of 4.4%.


Initial once-over sees:
- cash balances of 4.8bn euros (2009 6.982bn)
- increased assets and liabilities over the last 2 years which is probably related to the purchase of British Energy
- net cash outflows last year which could be related to the beginning of the build programs for the UK power stations
- increased gearing over the last 3 years which could be a combination of the above reasoning. But it has fallen to 155% (2009: 181%)
- cashflow per share at 597cents is massively more than the earnings per share figure of 34cents last year. But, the previous 2 years earnings were in the 190cents region and before that more than 300cents. So last year is probably also related to the reasoning above.
- in line with the previous point the forecast P/E of 14.5 is based upon a consensus of 179cents for earnings
- over the last 5 years the dividend is best described as flat, or fluctuating, rather than growing or decreasing.


So, some typical traits of a utility with possibly some differences in valuation due to it being in a different market i.e. the CAC40.
I would still like some way to understand what the expected performance over the next few years would be (at least to beyond the commissioning of the UK's power stations so that will have to be 2018). 
There is also the potential £40bn of cost plus any maintenance or rebuild of the company's existing portfolio.
But, there could be some promise over an extended period as long as no disasters strike any of the company's nuclear power stations.


Related articles:
- http://www.thisismoney.co.uk: Greener energy is predicted to push fuel bills up by £200 a year