Mongolia’s journey towards renewables started in 2009 with the first commercial windfarm project. With a capacity of 50 MW, the Salkhit wind farm near the capital, Ulaanbaatar, was constructed with financing of USD 47.5 million from the European Bank of Regional Development (EBRD), an amount matched by FMO, the Dutch development bank.

The challenges the project faced were enormous: working out how to build and operate a wind farm in -35C, transporting the wind turbines over 200 km of unpaved road, and creating the commercial and legal conditions for an unprecedented venture in the country.

When the plant at Salkhit – which means “windy mountain” in Mongolian – was connected to the grid in 2013, Nandita Parshad, currently EBRD Managing Director, Energy and Natural Resources, said: “Salkhit’s impact goes far beyond its immediate effects. It makes concrete a vision of Mongolia’s future that takes the benefits of the country’s resources and uses them to create a sustainable and diversified economy.”

And Salkhit was just the beginning. With that one successful project the country realised the potential of renewables and changed its approach to energy sources. Today, under the new energy efficiency strategy, Mongolia is seeking to raise the installed capacity of its renewable energy sources by up to 20 per cent by 2020 and 30 per cent by 2030.

The EBRD remains closely involved as the Bank also demonstrated this week with the visit of its First Vice President Phil Bennett to Mongolia. The Bank signed an agreement to finance the 50 MW Tsetsii wind farm in the south of the country last year. Tsetsii aims to be operational by the end of 2017. A third project, the Sainshand wind farm, with a 55W capacity and located south-east of Ulaanbaatar, was approved by the EBRD Board in June 2017.

As a result, wind currently accounts for 10 per cent of the country’s total installed power generation capacity. This is good for the economy and good for the environment. With the help of the EBRD the winds of change have also provided Mongolia with a breath of fresh air.