Mongolia’s first wind farm, located deep in the Mongolian Steppe, 70km from its capital, Ulaanbaatar, was officially opened in June 2013 by the Mongolian Minister of Energy, Mishig Sonompil.
Since wind and solar energy resources are much more abundant in Mongolia than potential hydropower RwB hopes that quick development of true renewables will help to save Mongolian rivers from destruction.
While most of Mongolian nomadic herders use small wind-generators for domestic need, the large-scale wind energy is yet to be developed in the country. The multi-million dollar Salkhit wind development, which consists of 31 GE wind turbines, will provide 50 megawatts of clean power for the country, offsetting coal powered generation and costly energy imports from other countries.
"The opening of Salkhit wind farm today is an exciting first for the country and an outstanding achievement for developer, Clean Energy LLC. This project will make a positive contribution to the Government’s target of generating 25 percent of its energy from renewables
by 2020,” said David Scott, the Honorary Consul of Mongolia in Scotland.
The opening ceremony, which took place on site, was attended by dignitaries from the Mongolian Government; developer, Clean Energy LLC; members of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; representatives of GE and Newcom; and project
technical adviser, SgurrEnergy.
The ceremony’s 11 key speakers each pushed a button to bring the wind farm’s turbines online and commence the first grid connected, wind energy generation in Mongolia.
SgurrEnergy, has been working for developer, Clean Energy LLC, on the landmark project since June 2011. The Glasgow-based company has provided expertise across resource analysis, development, tendering, financing, contracting and construction, supporting the project from conceptual feasibility stages, right through to operation.
“Completing this landmark project is going to change the face of the electricity sector in Mongolia," said Neal Detert, project manager at Clean Energy LLC. "We are breaking the ground for a pipeline of future privately funded wind farm and power plant projects in Mongolia, and SgurrEnergy has helped us to lead the way.”
Added Andrew Barker, SgurrEnergy’s director of engineering: “SgurrEnergy is delighted to be standing with Clean Energy as they open Mongolia’s first wind farm. This is a very proud day for our technical teams in Glasgow and Beijing; and our site team of experts from our offices in Vancouver, Glasgow and Portland; who have lived and breathed the project on a daily basis. We congratulate Amgaa, Neal and their team for
achieving a first for their country.”
Mongolia is currently undergoing rapid economic and energy development and the Salkhit wind farm will help to ease the country’s reliance on external energy sources and offset current coal-fired generation.
The country currently has a production capacity of 813 megawatts domestically but peak demand is around 850 megawatts and growing at a rate of approximately 15 percent per year.
Adopted from http://www.renewableenergymagazine.com