A
solar park was completed in the city of Chernobyl,
Ukraine, marking a long-awaited milestone as the first
solar installation at the reactor location devastated by
nuclear disaster in 1986.
The 1MW solar park was officially opened by October
2018 and consists of 3,800 panels across four acres, pro-
ducing sufficient energy to power around 2,000 hou-
seholds in the area. The plant uses existing power trans-
mission lines connected to the site and also makes use of
regional feed-in tariffs to generate power in an other-
wise unusable area.
The $1.2m plant, a joint project by Ukrainian company
Rodina and Germany’s Enerparc AG, offers the first real
sign that the area can be rebuilt. This is the first time
the region has been used for power generation since
2000.
Solar Chernobyl LLC chief executive Evhen Variagin
told Reuters: “It’s not just another solar power plant…
It’s really hard to underestimate the symbolism of this
particular project.
“We are seeing a new sprout, still small, weak, produ-
cing power on this site and this is very joyful.”
Three years ago, a 36,000 tonne arch was placed on
top of the old nuclear station as a means of containing
radiation. It has also allowed workers access to the
surrounding lands to clear it of materials from the old
nuclear reactor facility.
Despite the newly installed arch, much of the area re-
mains uninhabitable, and solar panels that require
little to no human involvement have long been seen
as an attractive alternative to traditional power gene-
ration methods.
22