Ukraine, which continues its war with Russia, is also working on a simple but clever plan to take advantage of the wasteland surrounding the ruins of Chernobyl. The country wants to turn the region into a giant wind farm and make the region a center of green energy.
The German company NOTUS Energy recently signed an agreement with the Ukrainian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources to explore the possibility of developing wind energy in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, who is in Ukraine for the fourth time since the Russian invasion, also attended the meeting.
“One of the focuses of Foreign Minister Baerbock’s visit will be the measures taken by Ukraine to ensure and protect energy supplies to the population, especially in the coming winter period,” the German Foreign Ministry said in a post.
In its article about the wind power plant that could be built in the future, the ministry added the following sentences: “The region affected by the nuclear accident almost forty years ago, in the midst of Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine, can thus become a symbol of clean, climate-friendly energy that provides green electricity to Kiev.”
If this plan becomes reality, Chernobyl could become one of the largest onshore wind farms in Europe.
According to recent research by NOTUS, the region has the potential to pump 1,000 megawatts of wind energy, enough to power approximately 800,000 households in Kiev, about 150 kilometers from Chernobyl.
In addition to helping move away from fossil fuels, this setup could also help Ukraine become more self-sufficient in energy demands. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became heavily dependent on Russia for fossil fuel imports, but the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war has (quite obviously) upended this relationship.
In the statement made by the General Manager of NOTUS Energy Ukraina LLC, the Ukrainian project development company of the NOTUS energy group, it was said: “A wind power plant of this size will make a significant contribution to the spread of renewable energies in Ukraine and will strengthen the independence and decentralized structure of the Ukrainian energy supply.”
What happened in Chernobyl?
The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in history on April 26, 1986, when a disastrous combination of flaws in reactor design and operator errors during safety testing caused the reactor to explode. This caused an uncontrolled release of dangerous radioactive substances, forcing authorities to displace more than 120,000 people living in the surrounding area and the nearby city of Pripyat. To date, the nuclear power plant is surrounded by a 2,600 square kilometer exclusion zone that is largely devoid of human activity due to radioactive contamination.
Ukraine has previously expressed interest in using the Chernobyl wasteland as a source of renewable energy. In 2018, a new solar farm consisting of 3,800 panels that will produce energy for 2,000 households was opened near the destroyed reactor of the nuclear power plant. Now these plans appear to be reviving as Ukraine faces new challenges.
As reported by the Kiev Independent newspaper, Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Ecology Oleksandr Krasnolutskyi said, “Even before the occupation, we had strategic plans to turn the Chernobyl zone into a recovery zone. “The war did not change them, but temporarily suspended them,” he said. “The partnership with NOTUS energy is a positive example for international investors that the Forbidden Zone is an attractive and promising area for the development of renewable energy and other environmentally friendly technical solutions. ”
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