Mongolia

Advances in solar power and other clean energy technologies have failed to keep up with demand for electricity as economies rebound from the Covid crisis and China and India’s fossil fuel appetite will ensure the world stays well short of what is needed for a net zero 2050 for at least the next three years.

With pressure mounting on the world’s governments to turn their back on the fossil fuel, China and peers in South East Asia, Europe and South Asia could help deliver a coal-free future at the COP26 climate summit planned in Glasgow in November.

The PV project is part of a program aimed at deploying 40.5 MW of solar and wind capacity in the country’s western and Altai-Uliastai regions.

The sheer volume of new power lines which will be required to accommodate the rising tide of solar installations ensures copper has been included by the International Energy Agency on its list of minerals which must keep flowing if the energy transition is to stay on course. And it’s not production that’s the potential bottleneck.

A 5 MW / 3.6 MWh solar-plus-storage plant is being built with sodium-sulfur batteries provided by Japanese specialist NGK Insulators in Mongolia’s Zavkhan Province. The project developer, Japan-based contractor JGC Holdings, wants to bring the facility online in the spring of next year.

Covid-19 border closures meant the first ‘active network management’ system was planned and commissioned for the Asian nation by the U.K. division of Saudi-owned smart grid specialist ZIV Automation.

The solar project, located in Altai, is being developed with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Up to 150 GW of PV and wind projects could be postponed or canceled throughout the Asia-Pacific region by 2024 if the coronavirus-triggered recession continues beyond the current year, according to new research by Wood Mackenzie.

The 5 MW Uliastai solar-plus-storage project will be located in the city of the same name in the western part of the country, around 1,100km from Ulaanbaatar. The facility is part of a plan to deploy 40 MW of solar and wind generation linked to energy storage in the nation’s western and Altai-Uliastai regions.

The project, planned for Khovd in the west of the country, is being developed with the support of the World Bank.