China to build solar power plant in Chornobyl exclusion zone

GCL System Integration Technology (GCL-SI), said it would cooperate with China National Complete Engineering Corp 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 Chornobyl plant, which is due to be covered next year by 1.6 billion US dollars steel-clad arch, is surrounded by a 2,600 square km exclusion zone of forest and marshland. GCL-SI did not say where the plant would be built, or give details of the construction plans.