Author of text:
AFP

Chernobyl, site of the largest nuclear disaster in history, could become a gigantic solar park, confirmed Ukrainian Minister of Environment, as saying.

"It is clear that this territory is not suitable for agriculture, but it is an area adapted to innovation and research activities," he told AFP Ukrainian Minister of Ecology Ostap Semerak.

By the end of this year, private companies will build two solar power plants, and each will have an output of 3 MW and will be placed in an area of ​​six hectares.

This amount of power is significantly lower than the four thousand, how many megawatts are produced at Chernobyl in the Soviet era, but is expected to be built by 2017 and the new plant.

The authorities indicated that the solar parks dedicated six thousand acres in the "containment zone" that covers a radius of 30 kilometers around the site of the accident.

About 50 percent of electricity produced in Ukraine nuclear power plant, 40 percent of power plants, mostly coal-fired, hydroelectric seven percent and only one percent of one solar.

"For this project interested many international companies. I believe that in the case of successful negotiations on could be launched as early as next year," added Semerak.

Semerak believes that the foreign investors to attract skilled workforce, as well as the price of land, which is cheap because it is not suitable for agriculture.

Thirty years after the disaster, the area, which its residents left, and only a hundred elderly shaft, turned into a unique reserve where flourishing flora and fauna.

Analysts believe that the idea of ​​this project technically viable. "Climatic conditions and the amount of sunlight are better in Ukraine than in Germany, where solar energy is widespread," said Dmitro Loukomski, CEO Rentehna, Ukrainian companies specializing in renewable energy.

The big advantage is that on the field is still in the infrastructure of the former nuclear power plant, such as transmission lines that are still usable, considered Loukomski.

"This is an important fact considering that the time produced electricity can be transmitted to consumers," said the expert, but he adds that the project will still take a lot of investment. "If the investors involved, the odds are fairly good. Without them, the chances are small," concludes Loukomski.

Ukrainian Minister of Ecology has already presented the project of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

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