The first solar project in the Chornobyl zone is expected to be commissioned next month, a step forward in the developers’ plan to invest EUR 100 million and build renewables in the radioactive exclusion zone, according to Bloomberg.
The project is being developed by Ukrainian engineering firm Rodina Energy Group Ltd. and Enerparc AG, a clean-energy company based in Hamburg, Germany. It will be 1 megawatt in size and cost about EUR 1 million to build, according to Yevhen Variahin, chief executive officer of Rodina, Bloomberg reports.
“Bit by bit we want to optimize the Chornobyl zone,” Variahin said by phone. “It shouldn’t be a black hole in the middle of Ukraine. Our project is 100 meters from the reactor.”
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In order to attract investors, the government is offering cheap land and relatively high feed-in tariffs. Rodina and Enerparc have secured a contract that will pay 15 euro cents per kilowatt-hour until 2030. That’s almost 40% higher than the upper band of Bloomberg New Energy Finance’s benchmark range for the levelized cost of solar in Europe.
“The higher price is because it’s a risky market, simple as that,” said Pietro Radoia, solar analyst at BNEF. “I would guess investors are after higher returns there.”
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Rodina and Enerparc are planning to develop as much as 99 more megawatts of solar in Chornobyl. The Ukrainian company is also open to working with new partners and investors, Variahin said.
Rodina has developed solar farms in Ukraine, Belarus, Turkey, Armenia, and Kazakhstan, installing about 150 megawatts in total.