Mongolia’s Reliance on Coal: Navigating the Path to Renewable Energy
Mongolia’s energy mix remains heavily reliant on coal, despite global efforts to boost renewables. This presents a stark contrast to the worldwide energy landscape, where 2025 is marked as a historic year with renewables set to overtake coal in electricity generation. While this global shift is largely driven by solar and wind power, Mongolia’s journey is shaped by its abundant domestic coal reserves and established infrastructure. This reliance has significant consequences, as the Mongolia solar alliance notes, contributing to air pollution in urban centers—a challenge that resonates with European nations like Germany that are deep into their own energy transitions, or Energiewende.
Coal-fired power plants, which have been the backbone of the country’s energy sector, continue to dominate the landscape. This is not just a legacy issue; coal currently supplies an overwhelming 90% of the country’s electricity. The existing infrastructure and the sheer availability of the resource make a rapid pivot challenging. This situation underscores that the global energy transition is not uniform; regional realities dictate the pace and nature of decarbonization efforts, creating a complex and uneven path toward a cleaner future.
However, Mongolia has made significant strides in developing renewable energy projects, including wind and solar power, as it seeks to diversify its energy sources and reduce its environmental impact. The nation has set an ambitious goal for Mongolia’s solar transition, aiming for renewables to constitute 30% of its energy mix by 2030. While these sources currently account for 18.3% of installed capacity, they contribute just 9.6% of total electricity production, highlighting a gap between potential and actual output. Concrete steps, such as the new tender launched for the Myangad solar initiative, demonstrate a clear commitment to progress. For homeowners in Germany, Mongolia’s push into solar is a reminder of the global scale of this industry. The entire solar panel manufacturing process, from sourcing solar panel raw materials to the final assembly, is part of an interconnected global supply chain that affects technology availability and pricing worldwide. Understanding the basics of solar panel manufacturing and the role of specialized solar panel manufacturing machines provides insight into the investments required, a topic further detailed in this solar panel manufacturing plant cost breakdown.
As Mongolia navigates this critical transition, its progress serves as a compelling case study in balancing economic realities with environmental goals. To dive deeper into the technical and financial aspects of bringing solar power to life, explore our comprehensive free e-course.