Mongolia”s biggest export is coal
but the world”s fastest growing economy is starting to harness its vast
renewable energy potential with its first wind farm set to come online
later this year.

The 50 megawatt (MW) wind farm,
located 45 miles from the capital city of Ulan Bator, will supply 5% of
Mongolia”s power needs.

Five massive coal-fired power plants
currently generate 80% of the nation”s electricity, and Mongolia is the biggest
exporter of coal to China.

But Mongolia”s climate and geography
are ripe for renewable energy development – its high plateaus are swept with
winds, there is strong year-round sunlight, and its plains could be developed
with little disruption to traditional herders, reports Global Post.

The country”s annual renewable
energy potential is 2.6 terawatts, about one-quarter of global electricity
demand, according to data from the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory and
the National Renewable Energy Center of Mongolia.

“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,” Neal Detert, an American project manager at Clean Energy LLC in
Mongolia, told GlobalPost.

The challenge is Mongolia”s coal
dependence: it is the country”s major export, helping driving GDP growth of 17%
last year.

The new 50 MW wind installation
will produce the first new power added to Mongolia’s grid since 1986 (when its
population was 30% smaller), and it is the country”s first private energy
enterprise.  The main developer is Mongolian investment firm Newcom, which
owns a 75% stake in the $120 million project.

Newcom and its partners, including
General Electric and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, are
evaluating a future 1,000-square-mile wind farm in the Gobi Desert. The first
phase alone would generate six times as much electricity as this first site,
reports GlobalPost.