50-MW Wind Farm in southern Mongolia is to commence construction. The $100 million Tsetsii plant received its permit from the National Dispatching Center, which manages Mongolia’s grid. Mongolia has set a target to derive 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020. More than 90 percent of the country’s energy currently comes from Soviet-era coal-fired power stations located in the capital Ulaanbaatar. The wind farm is the first project of Clean Energy Asia LLC, which is 51 percent owned by Ulaanbaatar-based Newcom and 49 percent by Japan’s SB Energy, which is SoftBank Corp.’s energy arm.

The operators plan to expand power capacity from 50 to 250 megawatts within 10 years. The Tsetsii plant, 540 kilometers south of Ulaanbaatar, should be completed in November 2016. The 50-mw wind farm in Southern Mongolia along with other wind farm in Eastern Mongolia will take the nation’s renewables generation to 152 megawatts.

Mongolia’s total installed capacity now is 864 megawatts, according to Newcom. The Tsetsii plant’s power purchase agreement with the government is valid for 25 years. A tender for a turbine supplier and construction firm will be announced in the middle of the year. Tsetsii is Newcom’s second wind farm. In 2013, it completed the 50-megawatt Salkhit project at a cost of $120 million, marking the first time in 30 years that a new power plant was connected to Mongolia’s central grid.