| Ukraine will study possibility of growing biomass for energy in Chornobyl exclusion zone |
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The State Agency for management of the exclusion zone jointly with Wageningen University and Research Centre (the Netherlands) and Belgian-Ukrainian enterprise for growing and using the biomass PhytoFuels Investments are planning to jointly carry out studies on advisability of growing the biomass on farmlands of the Chornobyl exclusion zone for its further use as biofuel for alternative energy objects. As Deputy Chairman of the State Agency for the exclusion zone management Mykola Proskura informed, relevant studies are planned to be completed by March 2012 and their results will be a basis for development of the project's feasibility study. The expected area of the project is estimated at 40-45% of the exclusion zone, i.e. about 1,100 sq km. Cost of studies is about UAH 500,000. The sources of financing are the funds of the European Union, as well as the funds of PhytoFuels Investments. Investments into a final project are estimated at EUR 2-3 million in 1 MW of capacity or about EUR 500 million. Earlier, the National Security and Defense Council considered possibility of using the lands, polluted as a result of an accident at Chornobyl NPP, for economic purposes. |