Turning wind into profit

Mongolia is “a renewable energy paradise,” according to asia.nikkei.com.
In fact, Mongolia has winds capable of producing 946 terawatts of energy per hour (one terawatt equals 10 trillion watts). However, 95 percent of all energy in Mongolia comes from coal.

“By 2025, it is necessary to produce a minimum of 1,545 megawatts of energy to meet domestic demand,” said Chief of the Regulatory Authority for Policy Implementation of the Ministry of Energy Ts.Bayarbaatar. If the government actualizes policy projects in the energy sector, by 2030, renewable energy will conquer 30 percent of all energy production in Mongolia.

Experts say Mongolia is perfect for producing renewable energy, and can take advantage of its resources to become an exporter. The 50 mw capacity Salkhit wind farm, the country’s first big source of renewable energy, was launched last year by Clean Energy LLC.
Umnugovi wind farm now in the works

CleanTech is leading the construction of a 250 mw wind farm in Khanbogdsoum of Umnugovi Province, 37 kilometers from Gashuunsukhait port. The construction of a wind power plant will start next spring. This project will be developed in two stages. The first stage, building a 102 mw power source, will be launched in six months.

CleanTech is developing an investment contract with HappyWind Holding (Sweden) and General Electric (USA), said an expert from the company. The power plant’s estimated cost will be 170 million USD.
Sinohydro, a leading construction company from China, is working on the construction of another wind farm in Khanbogd soum.

Big banks interested in investing

A 52 mw wind power plant will be built 15 kilometers from Sainshand in Dornogovi Province. “Since an investment contract with Ferrostaal of Germany was signed in February 2014, much work has been done. Domestic companies are working on landscape research. Construction of a wind power plant will start in spring next year, and will take 18 months,” said Director of Sainshand Wind Park R.Davaanyam. He added that they have announced a tender for power plant construction and wind turbine importing. Through August 8, they will receive the documents of tender bidders, and the results will be presented by August 25. General Electric, Siemens, Danish and Chinese companies have expressed interest in importing turbines. Several international banks and financial organizations have accepted credit requests, including European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, KfW Development Bank of Germany, and ten other financial organizations from the USA, the Netherlands and Belgium. To actualize this project, Mongolia needs 120 million USD.

Thanks to Sainshand Wind Park, every year, 100,000 families will receive energy. This is the fourth largest power producer in Mongolia, following Power Plant no.4, Power Plant no.3 and Darkhan Power Plant.

Mongolia can fetch nine billion USD

The main principles of the Asian Supergrid project “Gobitech” are to build big wind farms in the Mongolian Gobi and export energy to China, Japan and South Korea. Mongolia and Russia can export their produced energy to these three countries using transmission lines.

Last month, the Ministry of Energy organized a forum on “Renewable Energy in East Asia: Gobitech and the Super Network of Asian Power ,” which the Mongolian President attended.

“Mongolia has a certain initiative, which is called ‘Gobitech,’ to become an active user of the renewable energy of the Gobi,”said President Ts.Elbegdorj.

Within the “Gobitech” project, there is the possibility of constructing solar and wind power plants with a capacity of 50 gigawatts each. Project experts report that Mongolia will benefit most from the projects. Over a span of 16 years, Mongolia could earn nine billion USD, create 880,000 jobs, and build better roads by engaging in this project. There is a 100 percent chance of actualizing this project here report experts. The total cost of the project would be 237 billion USD, but the Gobi has resources capable of producing 2,600 terawatts of solar and wind energy per hour.

Turkish company Aydiner Global plans to spend 94 million USD to build a wind farm next year near Choir soum of Govisumber Province. Additionally, Clean Energy Asia is conducting research on building 50 and 100 megawatt wind farms in Umnugovi Province.

Source: Unuudur

Short URL: http://ubpost.mongolnews.mn/?p=10969

Comments

Popular posts from this blog