Chinese companies to build solar power stations in Chernobyl
Thirty years after the Chernobyl accident, two Chinese investment companies plan to build solar power stations (SPS) in the 10-km exclusion zone around the Chernobyl reactor. The construction is expected to start in 2017, as was reported on Monday, November 21 by Reuters. GCL System Integration Technology, a subsidiary of the GCL Group, said it would cooperate with China National Complete Engineering Corp. The planned location of future solar power stations was repeatedly checked by technical experts from both companies. SPSs should be an alternative to nuclear power plants, which are one of the main energy sources in Ukraine.
At the end of October, a meeting took place in Kyiv between the management from Chinese companies, the minister of ecology and natural resources of Ukraine, Ostap Semerak, and the head of the State Agency for Exclusion Zone Management, Vitaly Petruk. Representatives from China said that they are ready to invest over one billion dollars in the construction of the solar park in the Chernobyl zone because they consider this a long-term project in a promising market.
“We’ll try to renovate the once-damaged area with green and renewable energy, and we hope there will be remarkable social and economic benefits,” said Shu Hua, the chairman of GCL-SI.
Solar power stations in the Chernobyl exclusion zone are expected to produce about one GWh of electricity per year.