United Kingdom-based Rolls-Royce SMR has been selected by Swedish nuclear company Videberg Kraft to deploy three small modular reactors (SMRs) on the Värö peninsula on Sweden’s west coast.
Videberg Kraft’s project looks to build Sweden’s first nuclear power plant in over 40 years and to add 1,500 megawatts of low-carbon baseload power, according to Rolls-Royce SMR’s Monday press release. The 1,500-megawatt project would be around 6% of Sweden’s annual power consumption.
Rolls-Royce SMR’s CEO Chris Cholerton said that this decision follows a selection process that began in 2022. The process considered both large-scale reactors and SMRs, he said. The company expects to have its first Swedish unit online by the mid-2030s.
“This is a strong endorsement of our transformational approach to delivery of a standardized fleet of SMRs,” Cholerton said. “This decision further demonstrates growing market confidence in our technology, and we deeply appreciate the strong collaboration with the Videberg Kraft team and the trust placed in us.”
This decision expands Rolls-Royce SMRs presence across Europe as the company already has plans to place reactors in the United Kingdom and Czechia.
In the U.K., Rolls-Royce SMR and Great British Energy – Nuclear plan to build three SMRs at the Wylfa site in North Wales together. While in Czechia, Rolls-Royce SMR is teaming up with ČEZ, a Czech utility company, to build up to 3,000 megawatts of low-carbon energy in Czechia.
A Rolls-Royce SMR is a pressurized water reactor designed to produce 470 megawatts. The company said it is in the final stages of the U.K. nuclear regulatory process for its reactor.
Sweden has a renewed interest in nuclear power and looks to add more while maintaining its green transition, an economic shift towards sustainable, low-carbon alternatives to lower pollution. In March, the Swedish government received its first SMR application from Kärnfull Next, which has proposed a SMR campus in Valdemarsvik in southern Sweden.