After the infamous meltdown in 1986 resulted from a flawed reactor design and poor training, other nuclear reactors at the Chernobyl facility continued to operate until the turn of the century. For the past 18 years, Chernobyl has been nothing but an abandoned wasteland due to the high level of radiation, making the Chernobyl exclusion zone unsuitable for agriculture or forestry. This exclusion zone is a 1000 square mile area around the Chernobyl nuclear plant mostly uninhabited and unused since the 1986 disaster. Since there is already substantial electrical infrastructure in place left over from the nuclear plant and the fact that the land is unused and cheap, the site is an excellent choice for large solar farm(s) to be installed.
“It’s not just another solar power plant…it’s really hard to underestimate the symbolism of this particular project. ” the chief executive of Solar Chernobyl LLC, Evhen Variagin, told reporters at the unveiling of a 1 MW joint project that can power 2,000 homes, on Friday, October 5, 2018, by Ukrainian company Rodina and German company Enerparc AG, costing about $1.2 million (1 million euros) and benefiting from feed-in-tariffs that guarantee a certain price for power. The head of the Chernobyl nuclear plant Valery Seyda said, “It is the first time the site has produced power since 2000, when the nuclear plant was finally shut down. But now we are seeing a new sprout, still small, weak, producing power on this site and this is very joyful.”
Between January and September of this year (2018), more than 500 MW of renewable power capacity is added to Ukraine, more than twice as much as in 2017, according to the Ukrainian government.The head of the Office of the National Investment Council of Ukraine, Yulia Kovaliv, said investors want to reap the benefits from a generous subsidy scheme before parliament is due to vote on scrapping it in July next year. “Investors expect that in the renewable energy sector facilities launched before 2019 will operate on the current beneficial system of green tariffs…that is why investors want to buy ready-to-build projects in order to complete construction before that time.” Yulia Kovaliv told Reuters reporter on the sidelines of a conference in Odessa in September.
Cheap land and sunny skies are attracting interests from around the world. Two Chinese companies, GCL System Integration Technology Co. Ltd. and China National Complete Engineering Corp, are also building a one-gigawatt solar power plant (enough to power 100 million LED bulbs) to the South of Chernobyl. Another dozen smaller investors are also installing solar parks nearby on a smaller scale. These entrepreneurs are not deterred by the challenges of major construction projects in nuclear contamination zone. Engineering work has already begun, but there has not been any public disclosure about safety measures, the completion date, nor a price for the project.
Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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Governor John de Jongh, Jr. of the Virgin Islands signed a bill enacting feed-in tariffs in the US territory on May 16, 2004. Act 7586 is a greatly watered down version of the original proposal by Senator Craig W Barshinger. The act directs the territory’s utility to set the tariffs and otherwise administer the program. The tariffs must be approved by the Public Service Commission. Unlike many recent feed-in tariff proposals in North America, the Virgin Islands act includes other renewables an[more]
Facing pressure due in large part to a pipeline of proposed PV installations and increasing electricity demand, the Philippine Department of Energy (DOE) is organizing plans to raise its feed-in tariff (FiT) cap to 10 times more than the current rate.
Since the domestic RHI launched in April 2014, I’ve been hearing people saying that the domestic RHI ‘isn’t such a good return as the feed-in tariff (FiT).
Here is yet another reason why the reductions German energy intensive industry gets when paying surcharges are not subsidies, and therefore none of the EU Commission’s business.
REACH’s wrapup summary of renewable legislation that was considered by Hawaii’s state legislature during its 2014 session, including 100% RE, storage, grid modernization, net-metering, and various renewable energy tax credits.
The Fukui District Court ruled Wednesday that it will not allow the restart of two reactors at Kansai Electric Power Co.’s Oi nuclear plant, now under safety examination by Japan’s top nuclear watchdog. . . It is the first time since the Fukushima nuclear crisis erupted in March 2011 that a Japanese court has ordered a power supplier not to bring a nuclear plant online.
The Danish Energy Agency has published an energy-scenario report and five sub-analyses on the energy system of the future and the challenges that need managing up to 2050 as fossil fuels are phased out and replaced with renewable energy.
Windpower Ownership in Sweden: Business models and motives, the new book by Tore Wizelius helps English-speakers understand how Swedes have taken a sizable ownership of wind energy in spite of their government. In this, his book can serve as an inspiration to community wind advocates worldwide who face many of the same challenges faced in Sweden.[more]
In comparison, the German Chancellor’s office (Bundeskanzleramt) has a 150 kW installation. That’s at least by a factor 10 more than what Obama has installed.
Evance have an innovative new windmill design 90% of the way through development and nearing the production stage, following the manufacture and supply of almost 2,000 of smaller windmills –between 10-20m tall – to Britain and locations across the globe from the USA and Madagascar over the past decade.
However, developers say a lot of the uncertainty around geothermal in the U.S., and part of the reason it hasn’t grown much in recent years, is due to the unreliable nature of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC).
This feed-in tariff news update is made in cooperation with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. The views expressed are those of Paul Gipe and are not necessarily those of ILSR.
Gathered and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any of your questions/comments/suggestions will be welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
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