Chinese and Germans are among dozens of investors taking Ukraine up on its offer to turn the grounds of one of the world's worst nuclear disasters into a massive solar park.

Thirteen international investors are among the 39 groups seeking Ukrainian permission to install about 2 gigawatts of solar panels inside the radioactive exclusion zone surrounding the defunct Chernobyl nuclear plant, according to Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Ostap Semerak. Two gigawatts is almost the capacity of two modern nuclear reactors, although atomic power works both day and night.

"We have received requests from businesses that are interested in renting land for building solar power stations," Semerak said in a phone interview from Kiev. "We are not looking to profit from land use; we are looking to profit from investment."