In the vast rolling plains of Salkhit, 45 miles outside the capital of Ulan
Bator, a work crew are busy bending large metal cables into an elaborate, squat
structure. Once complete, and with a turbine the length of a football field
inserted into the top, it will form a key part of the first wind farm to operate
in this coal-rich but infrastructure-poor Asian country.

Over the next month, 31 wind turbines will go into operation across this
isolated site, supplying an impressive 5 percent of the nation’s current power
needs. More importantly, those involved are hoping it will kick-start a clean
energy revolution in a country in dire need of non-polluting energy sources.

“We have a vision to transform Mongolia into a clean energy powerhouse of
Asia,” says Bayanjargal Byambasaikhan, CEO of Newcom Group, the company behind
the project.

Mongolia actually has all of the natural advantages that could make it one
of the key sources of clean energy in the world: high plateaus with constant
winds; vast, sparsely inhabited plains that could be developed without too much
disruption to traditional herder’s lives; and strong sunlight even in the bleak
winter months.

“In Mongolia you have large expenses of land, you”ve got more than 300 days
per annum of sunlight and fairly constant wind. So it’s got basically the
perfect trifecta for renewable energy in the world,” says Neal Detert, an
American project manager at Clean Energy LLC in Mongolia.

The problem is that Mongolia’s past, present, and future are indelibly tied
to coal. The black carbon fuel drives the economy (which grew at over 17
percent last year) and is the country’s major export.

It also made Ulan Bator, by some people’s reckoning, the most polluted
capital city in the world last winter.

“I had seen the pollution numbers before arriving, but living here is a
whole different experience,” says Christa Hasenkopf, a research fellow at the
University of Colorado who is studying pollution in Ulan Bator.

Hasenkopf compares the levels of smoke, soot and dust particles present in
the capital’s air to those around a firefighter battling a wildfire — “and this
is all winter long,” she adds.

Rapid urbanization over the last few decades has resulted in nearly 60.