France, Ukraine considering green energy projects in Chornobyl
France and Ukraine are exploring the possibility of launching renewable energy projects in the Chornobyl exclusion zone, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Ukraine reported.
Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Svitlana Hrynchuk and Pierre Heilbronn, the French president's special envoy for aid and reconstruction in Ukraine, visited the Chornobyl exclusion zone.
The visit aimed to assess investment opportunities for renewable energy in the area.
This topic was previously discussed in February 2025 during a meeting between Hrynchuk and Heilbronn.
At that time, Heilbronn noted that French companies had already conducted an analysis and saw significant potential in this field.
Additionally, Ukrainian and French representatives inspected the damage caused by a recent Russian attack on the Chornobyl New Safe Confinement (NSC), a structure built with the involvement of French companies and experts.
French partners are now considering providing aid for NSC restoration through the International Chernobyl Cooperation Account (ICCA).
As early as 2017, Ukraine had negotiations with Engie SA, one of France's largest energy companies, regarding the construction of a solar power plant in the Chornobyl zone.
- Russian forces seized the Chornobyl nuclear power plant on February 24, 2022, the first day of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. They left the site on March 31, moving toward Belarus.
- In April 2022, Energoatom head Petro Kotin visited a section of the Red Forest where Russian troops had dug trenches. At that time, internal radiation levels (alpha and beta contamination) exceeded safety norms by 100 times or more.
- On the night of February 14, 2025, a Russian drone carrying a high-explosive warhead struck the NSC protecting the destroyed Unit 4 reactor of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant.