Ulaanbaatar city and its new, soon-to-be-opened international airport will be partly powered by a photovoltaic (PV) plant, developed with financial support from Tokyo.  Japanese group Sharp’s 16.4MW solar project in Khushight Khundii, in Mongolia’s Tuv Province, has wrapped up construction and ready to start operation.

The installation will supply 23.1GWh per year to the national grid, which powers Ulaanbaatar city and a new national airport that is scheduled to complete this year. The plant, representing 18,000-plus tonnes in CO2 savings, was built with support from the Japanese government.

The Khushight Khundii project follows Sharp’s completion last year of a PV plant, also boasting 16.5 MW of capacity, in the southern desert province of Dornogovi. The firm was also behind a 10MW project announced in 2016 northwest of Ulaanbaatar, described at the time as Mongolia’s first utility-scale PV scheme.

Mongolia is progressing towards a 30% renewable target share by 2030 as it works to power fast-growing Ulaanbaatar and other areas.