Vestas has been named as the head engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the 50-megawatt Tsetsii wind farm in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, and will supply 25 wind turbines for the wind farm.

The Tsetsii wind farm, located approximately 540km south of Ulaanbaatar in the Gobi desert in Mongolia, is a large scale infrastructure project being developed by Clean Energy Asia (jointly owned by Mongolia's Newcom Group and Japan’s SB Energy Corp) with finance from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Japan International Cooperation Agency. The wind farm is expected to go online in late 2017.

Vestas is a Danish company involved in the design, manufacture, installation and service of wind turbines. It is one of the largest wind turbine companies in the world.

MinterEllison acted as legal adviser to Vestas in its capacity as EPC contractor and wind turbine supplier to the Tsetsii wind farm project. Our cross-jurisdictional team was led by partner Sebastian Rosholt and senior associate Scott Schlink in our Ulaanbaatar office, supported by partners Michael Creedon (Brisbane, Australia) and Christian Pellone (Hong Kong) with Dunnaran Baasankhuu (partner, MEMGL, Ulaanbaatar) and Mandy Bayarbat (associate, MEMGL, Ulaanbaatar). MEMGL is a Mongolian-registered law firm that provides Mongolian legal services exclusively to MinterEllison.

“This is Vestas’ first major deal in Mongolia and the Tsetsii wind farm will be a key piece of energy infrastructure for Mongolia into the future. The project forms a vital part of Mongolia's renewable energy programme and will reduce its reliance on fossil fuel based energy. MinterEllison is delighted to have had the opportunity to work with Vestas in making this project a reality,” Sebastian Rosholt said.

Currently, only 7% of installed power-generation capacity in Mongolia comes from renewables, mostly hydropower. A policy currently before the country's Parliament aims to boost the share of renewables in the energy mix to 20% by 2023 and 30% by 2030. Parliament has also recently adopted broad measures aimed at future sustainability, including the Green Development Policy and the Law on Energy Conservation and Efficiency.