China to build solar power plant in Chernobyl exclusion zone

Two Chinese firms plan to build a solar power plant in the exclusion zone around the Chernobyl nuclear reactor.

GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-SI), a subsidiary of the GCL Group, said it would cooperate with China National Complete Engineering Corp (CCEC) on the project in Ukraine, with construction expected to start next year, Reuters reports.

"There will be remarkable social benefits and economic ones as we try to renovate the once damaged area with green and renewable energy," Shu Hua, the chairman of GCL-SI, said in a press release.

The 1-gigawatt plant was part of the group's plan to build an international presence, he added.

The Chernobyl plant, which is due to be covered next year by a 1.5 billion euro ($1.6 billion) steel-clad arch, is surrounded by a 2,600 square km (1,000 square mile) exclusion zone of forest and marshland.

GCL-SI did not say where the plant would be built, or give details of the construction plans.