Construction has commenced on Mongolia’s first wind farm this month, with Scottish-based renewable energy consultancy, SgurrEnergy, mobilising personnel to live on site to support and guide the project through construction.
The $100m (USD) Salkhit project, comprising 31 GE wind turbines, will generate 50MW of clean power to the Mongolian grid, which is equivalent to over 5% of the grid’s entire capacity. Another 2GW of potential renewable energy production has already been identified to support the country’s vibrant expected energy growth.
SgurrEnergy, part of Wood Group, is technical advisor to Clean Energy LLC and has provided expertise across project development, tendering, contracting and construction of the site. Additionally, SgurrEnergy will provide advice to the team in Mongolia during the early stages of operation to ensure successful energy production.
The Salkhit wind farm site is situated deep in the Mongolian Steppe, around 70km south of the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. The Asian country is undergoing rapid economic and energy development and this wind project will help to ease reliance on Russia’s energy resources and offset current coal-fired generation.
SgurrEnergy’s engineering group manager, Andrew Barker, said of the assignment: “The project represents a major development in a new market and demonstrates SgurrEnergy’s expertise in delivering ground-breaking projects and encouraging sustainable development across the globe. Our appointment as project manager and technical advisor on Mongolia’s first wind farm is testament to our expertise and dedication to delivering successful projects.”
Neal Detert, project manager at Clean Energy LLC, said: “As the first wind farm project in Mongolia, the Salkhit wind farm represents a true landmark for Mongolia, and the birth of a vibrant renewable power industry in the country. The SgurrEnergy team has been instrumental in realising this project, providing professional and timely support from feasibility to due diligence and technical project management. We have relied greatly on the SgurrEnergy team’s experience and they have delivered.”
With temperatures ranging from -40ºC in the winter to 40ºC in the summer, these extreme weather conditions present an interesting and exciting engineering challenge for the SgurrEnergy team, who will be based on site for the duration of the project.
