Ukraine is going to build a solar power plant in the exclusion zone around Chernobyl

Thirty years have passed since the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The level of radiation contamination in some regions around the station is already close to normal. But the area of ​​Luxembourg will remain uninhabitable for hundreds of years. Now Ukraine is looking for an opportunity to use the exclusion zone.



In this zone, the population of wild animals is actively increasing, vegetation is winning over all new meters of the once industrial region. But a person has nothing to take here - it is impossible to hunt animals, berries and fruits cannot be collected either. And especially not recommended to collect mushrooms, which, according to rumors, there is a huge amount. But there is one product in Chernobyl that can be disposed of without any problems. This is solar energy.



It is possible that after some time a solar power station will be built in the exclusion zone. There is a place here - the total area of ​​virtually unowned land is 2600 km ² .

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“The Chernobyl zone has good potential as a source of renewable energy,” says the Minister of Ecology of Ukraine Ostap Semerak. “There are high-voltage power lines here, which were previously used to transfer energy between NPP facilities, the earth is very cheap, and we have specialists who are trained in power plants.”



Now Ukraine’s energy source is nuclear power plants, hydropower plants, coal-fired power plants. The country buys gas from Russia and European countries (in the reverse direction), and is actively seeking ways to reduce dependence on external suppliers. A partial solution to the problem may be the creation of large solar power plants. The general level of insolation in Ukraine exceeds that in Germany.







And in Germany several solar power plants with a total capacity of 39 GW have already been built. This country is generally the leader of Europe in the use of alternative energy sources.



On May 8, Germany broke a new record in the generation of energy from renewable sources. Due to the solar and at the same time windy weather, the total energy production by solar, wind, hydro and bioenergy stations was about 55 GW. In total, 63 GW of energy was consumed in the country that day. Thus, the share of renewable sources was about 87%. For a few hours the prices went negative, which means payments to energy consumers.



Ukraine, in principle, does not interfere with deploying a similar energy infrastructure. We need only desire, specialists who can spend this work and money. They need a lot - to create the originally planned complex of "solar" power plants with a capacity of 1 GW, the country needs to spend $ 1.1 billion.



The state itself has no such money, but there are interested investors who are ready to invest their money. These are two investment funds from the USA and four Canadian energy companies. Semerak claims that they all expressed interest in participating in this project. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development also expressed a desire to participate. "We can consider this project as trustworthy and reliable, where you can invest money," said the director of the EBRD Ukrainian unit.



The pilot project is quite modest. By the end of this year, it is planned to create a solar power complex with a capacity of 4 MW in the exclusion zone.



This project is much more promising than the other previously reported: a number of Ukrainian officials support the idea of ​​creating a nuclear waste dump in the exclusion zone within a radius of ten kilometers from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Vitaliy Petruk, the head of the State Agency of Ukraine for the Management of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, commented on this idea: “People cannot live on the polluted land for another 500 years, so we plan to make it an industrial complex.”



If the pilot project is successful, it can become a hub for building a much more powerful power station. And the energy infrastructure is already there - as mentioned above, there are high-voltage power lines in this place, some of them are used. So the cost of creating the energy infrastructure necessary for a solar power plant would be less than if everything was done from scratch.