LONDON, Sept. 26 (UPI) -- Scottish and Southern Energy has decided to focus its investments on wind rather than nuclear power, an executive said.
SSE's Generation and Supply Director Alistair Phillips-Davies was quoted by The Daily Telegraph newspaper in London as saying "our core investment in generation should be in renewable energy."
The utility company said it was selling its 25 percent stake in nuclear joint venture NuGen to its partners GDF Suez and Iberdrola.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, in a report last week, said the nuclear accident in Japan that was sparked by a massive earthquake in March is expected to slow the advance of nuclear power.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in response to Japan's nuclear disaster, ordered eight of the country's 17 nuclear reactors closed by year's end and a total shutdown by 2022.
Phillips-Davies said the utility considered nuclear power a vital component of the regional energy mix, adding the SSE "may become involved again at a future date, either as an investor or as a purchaser of electricity," the Telegraph added.
Phillips-Davies cited management commitments as the primary reason for the strategic shift.
