A consortium of Enerparc AG and Rodina Energy Group has built a pilot solar power plant with a capacity of 1 MW near the Chornobyl nuclear power plant (NPP), Rodina Energy Group CEO Yevhen Variahin has said.

"From the technical point of view, the construction has been completed. We are commissioning it… The plant is a pilot one. Using experience received during its construction we would understand if it is possible to extend the project in the Chornobyl zone or not," he said.

Variahin said that the consortium has designed a strategy for developing solar power plants in the polluted areas. Under the strategy a solar power plant with a capacity of 4.2 MW was built in Belarus (in the exclusion zone) and now a pilot solar power plant with a capacity of 1 MW was built near Chornobyl NPP.

"If the pilot project in the Chornobyl zone is success, out opinion is that this is the place where solar power plants should be built in the future. This is a socially responsible strategy – instead of occupying fertile land and grassland land unfit for this is used," he said.

Variahin said that the implementation of the pilot project required more time than it was expected initially.

"Formally we started the project in summer 2015. The land parcel was registered only in February 2017. Only in June 2017 we received permits for construction and only in October we were able to come to the construction site… For comparison, the similar project in Armenia we implemented in two weeks," he said.