Two Chinese solar companies have announced a plan to build a large solar farm in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. The solar farm is expected to output over 1 gigawatt of power.

The Chernobyl exclusion zone is a 1000 square mile area around the Chernobyl nuclear plant that has remained largely uninhabited and unused since the disaster in 1986. The high levels of radiation make the zone unsuitable for typical land uses like agriculture or forestry.

However, the site is an excellent choice for the location of a large solar farm. Not only is the land cheap and unused, but there is already substantial electrical infrastructure in place left over from the nuclear plant.

Ukraine has been trying to find an investor to build a large solar farm in the exclusion zone for several months, and it seems two Chinese energy companies are interested. The companies, GCL System Integration Technology and China National Complete Engineering Corp (CCEC), will cooperate to build the farm.

GCL will build and install the solar components, while CCEC will manage and supervise the entire project. Neither company disclosed where exactly the solar farm would be built, or how much the project will cost.