China is building a giant solar power plant near Chernobyl
- 6 years ago
PRIPYAT, UKRAINE — Once the site of the world's worst nuclear disaster, Chernobyl is getting a makeover to turn it into a source of renewable energy.
Reuters reports that Ukraine's Chernobyl power plant contaminated the region with radiation when it exploded in 1986, but is now being covered by a steel arch that will be completed in 2018.
Surrounding the plant is an exclusion zone of forest and marshland, which the government allowed to be developed once the radiation was under control.
Two Chinese firms plan to revive the the area by building a 1-gigawatt solar photovoltaic plant within the exclusion zone.
The Chinese have previously converted damaged and contaminated land in its own territory into solar and wind farms, and hope to undertake the same endeavor globally.
Aside from the Chinese project, a Ukrainian-German company has also begun installing solar panels just a hundred meters from the decommissioned nuclear plant, reports AFP.
Reuters reports that Ukraine's Chernobyl power plant contaminated the region with radiation when it exploded in 1986, but is now being covered by a steel arch that will be completed in 2018.
Surrounding the plant is an exclusion zone of forest and marshland, which the government allowed to be developed once the radiation was under control.
Two Chinese firms plan to revive the the area by building a 1-gigawatt solar photovoltaic plant within the exclusion zone.
The Chinese have previously converted damaged and contaminated land in its own territory into solar and wind farms, and hope to undertake the same endeavor globally.
Aside from the Chinese project, a Ukrainian-German company has also begun installing solar panels just a hundred meters from the decommissioned nuclear plant, reports AFP.