Clean Energy Asia announced the commercial operations of its 50MW Tsetsii Wind Farm located in the Gobi desert.
Clean Energy Asia’s shareholders are Newcom and SB Energy of SoftBank Group.
The wind farm will help supply Mongolia’s power demand with clean, energy-efficient electricity by harnessing wind resources.
Clean Energy Asia commenced operations three months ahead of the previously scheduled launch date of December 2017.
Mongolia has a power-supply capacity of 1130MW, consisting of 88 percent coal, 6 percent diesel, 6 percent renewable energy, and 2 percent hydropower sources, according to the Department of Energy, Mongolia, 2015.
The State Great Khural approved a national power policy in 2015 that sets Mongolia’s mid-to-long term target and plan for 2015-2030 in the energy sector. The policy aims to increase the power generation share of renewable energy to 20 percent by 2020 and to 30 percent by 2030.
Mongolia is the first country to sign a memorandum with Japan on the Joint Crediting Mechanism (JCM) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Tsetsii Wind Farm project, which can help contribute to the increased adoption of renewable energy in Mongolia, is the first dollar-denominated project finance debt transaction by JICA through its Private Sector Investment Finance scheme in the renewable energy field.
“The commercial launch of the Tsetsii Wind Farm marks the first step for the SoftBank Group to establish a renewable energy business in Mongolia under the Asia Super Grid project, in addition to India and Japan,” said Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank Group.
During the peak of the project’s construction period, the company had over 400 workers and more than 95 percent of those workers were Mongolians.