On June 20, Mongolia’s first ever wind farm near the capital of Ulaanbaatar put into operation and started to supply its electricity to the central energy system.
The power station was built at the Shalkhit mountain in Sergelen soum of Tuv province which is the central part of Mongolia. The Salkhit wind farm’s construction work and studies of wind energy resources were implemented by the National Newcom Group with its partners such as General Electric Pacific Company, European Bank For Reconstruction and Development, and the Clean Energy company with investment of the Netherlands Development Finance Company.
The Wind farm has an initial installed capacity of 68,5 million kilowatt/hours electricity which is adequate for the yearly energy needs of 100.000 households. Each of 15 giant wind turbines is 120 meters tall with 3 sections and weight 125 tons. The wind farm save 150.000 tons of coal and 1,6 million tons of water each year. It also prevents the emission of 180 tons of CO2.
Mongolia has huge resources of wind. As researchers esteemed, using such resources the country is able to produce electrical energy equal to that of seven nuclear power stations. It means that Mongolia’s wind resources are sufficient not only to provide domestic consumption of energy, but also export an electrical energy to the neighboring China, even more other countries of Asia.
In recent years, due to the intensive economic development Mongolian energy consumption are increased rapidly, which requires to have larger energy source by using its wind resources.