Huge 2GW wind, solar and storage project gets underway in Mongolia

Chinese wind turbine manufacturer MingYang Smart Energy has begun construction of a 2GW hybrid project in Inner Mongolia which, upon completion, will boast 1.7GW of wind power capacity, 300MW of solar PV capacity, and 320MW of battery capacity with three hours of storage.

MingYang Smart Energy is developing the project alone, utilising its experience in both wind manufacturing and its burgeoning solar PV manufacturing experience. The project, billed by the company as a demonstration project, was originally intended to feature only 1GW of wind.

The 10 billion yuan ($AU2.08 billion) project will continue to build on Inner Mongolia’s rich wind resources, with at least 31GW worth of wind already installed in the region, according to Windpower Intelligence, the research and data division of Windpower Monthly.

According to MingYang Smart Energy’s press release announcing the start of construction (as translated by Google), in addition to the 1.7GW of wind and 300MW of solar, the project will also boast an energy storage project with capacity of 320MW/960MWh.

MingYang Smart Energy expects that the project “will greatly promote the power and grid-side large-scale energy storage technology revolution and regional grid high-proportion green power consumption technology, promote the energy revolution, improve energy efficiency, and jointly build a modern energy economic development of domestic and even global significance benchmarking.”

The unnamed hybrid project is also an important step for the company in following Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for a modern energy economy.

MingYang Smart Energy also hopes that the project will demonstrate how hybrid renewables can be immediately effective and efficient, while also demonstrating the value of customised wind turbines and large-scale grid peak energy storage.

Buried within the awkwardly translated press announcement, MingYang Smart Energy also said it hoped to show the value of non-subsidised wind power and an energy storage compensation mechanism.

However, the specifics of exactly whether the project is completely unsubsidised and what the energy storage compensation mechanism is were not made clear.