Mongolia’s Ministry of Energy has issued an invitation to project developers to pre-qualify to compete in a tender to construct a 5 MW solar-plus-storage facility.

The Uliastai solar array, which is being developed with the financial support of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), is part of the Upscaling Renewable Energy Sector Project which aims to deploy 40.5 MW of solar and wind capacity in the country’s western and Altai-Uliastai regions.

The USD 66.2 million initiative also includes 10 MW solar plants at each of Altai City and Murun, a 500 kW solar-wind hybrid project with storage in Altai County, a 10 MW wind project in Umunogovi and a 5 MW wind farm in Telmen.

The Uliastai solar-plus-storage plant is expected to cost around USD 7.95 million, according to the ADB. Developers have until March 27 to submit pre-qualifying bids.

The 5 MW Uliastai solar-plus-storage project will be located in the city of the same name in the western part of the country, around 1,100km from Ulaanbaatar. The facility is part of a plan to deploy 40 MW of solar and wind generation linked to energy storage in the nation’s western and Altai-Uliastai regions.

The Mongolian government in September launched a tender to build a 10 MW solar plant in Khovd, in the west of the country. That project is being backed by the World Bank’s International Development Association.

Mongolia had around 63 MW of installed solar generation capacity at the end of 2018, according to International Renewable Energy Agency figures. The nation’s total, theoretical power generation capacity, according to the ADB, stands at 1,158 MW. Of that power fleet, however, only 969 MW appears to be online due to aging, coal-based conventional power plants.

In 2017, Mongolia had to import around 20% of the electricity it needed.