Mongolia's energy consumption
Mongolia's energy consumption is heavily reliant on domestically produced coal, which accounts for approximately 70.8% of its energy as of 2021. The capital city, Ulan Bator, faces significant energy challenges due to an outdated and inefficient centralized energy system, with severe winter temperatures necessitating reliable heating. Despite housing about 50% of the population, many residents in Ulan Bator's informal settlements utilize inefficient coal stoves that contribute to air pollution and health issues. Access to electricity has improved significantly, reaching the entire population by 2022, yet many rural areas still depend on traditional coal heating, leading to high energy costs for poor families.
The vast and sparsely populated geography complicates the provision of energy to provincial towns, with limited infrastructure hampering coal transportation. While Mongolia has substantial coal reserves, the potential for decentralized renewable energy sources like solar and wind is being explored as a means to expand energy access, particularly in remote communities. Efforts are underway to enhance energy efficiency through improved technologies and better insulation, which could mitigate environmental impacts and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, Mongolia's energy landscape reflects a complex interplay of traditional energy reliance, geographical challenges, and the pursuit of sustainable solutions.
Mongolia's energy consumption
Official Name: Mongolia.
Summary: Mongolia relies on domestically produced coal for energy, has an inefficient centralized energy system in Ulan Bator, and faces challenges in ensuring affordable energy access in distant provincial towns and scattered rural communities.
Mongolia’s capital, Ulan Bator (also rendered as Ulaanbaatar), was home to about 50 percent of Mongolia’s population as of 2023. Ulan Bator is the coldest capital city in the world with average annual temperatures of minus 2 degrees Celsius and winter temperatures that dip below minus 40 degrees Celsius. Mongolia relies on its substantial coal reserves for heating and electricity. The greatest energy challenge in Ulan Bator is the efficient use of it, not the supply. The coal power plants that generate heat and electricity for the city of Ulan Bator are outdated, highly inefficient, and costly to maintain. Inefficient coal space heaters in informal settlements surrounding Ulan Bator contribute to air pollution. Securing heat and electricity in Mongolia’s provincial towns and scattered rural communities is challenging, given the vast distances between sites of power generation and settlements and the limited investment for localized energy systems.
Energy Efficiency in Ulan Bator
In 1921, Mongolia became independent from China and declared itself the second communist country in the world after Russia. From 1921 until 1990, Mongolia depended on the Soviet Union for development assistance. Ulan Bator’s combined coal heat and power stations were constructed with Soviet aid. These plants have high maintenance costs and high levels of inefficiency; much of the heat piped from them is lost along the pipeline. Although expensive to maintain, they would be even more costly to replace. With temperatures dipping below minus 40 degrees Celsius in winter, heating is crucial in Ulan Bator. Moreover, apartments receiving the piped heat cannot regulate the temperature; as a result, some apartments are so hot that residents must open windows in the dead of winter, whereas other apartments remain so cold that residents must bundle up to stay warm.
The government subsidizes heating costs through cheap district heating and cheap coal for space heating, resulting in reduced incentives for energy conservation and building insulation. Heat loss through poor building insulation is a widespread problem. Curbing the distribution heat leaks and improving energy efficiency through new technologies and better insulation are crucial. Straw-bale housing, with its high insulation quality, has even been piloted as a way to improve energy efficiency. Improving energy efficiency would reduce the amount of coal needed to heat the city, which in turn could reduce greenhouse gases and air pollution, thus improving air quality and halting the rising rate of respiratory illnesses among urban residents.
Half of Ulan Bator’s population lives in informal ger settlements around the city, areas where people have set up traditional gers (circular tents) and often build structures around them. Such homes are poorly insulated and are heated with inefficient space-heating coal stoves that burn low-quality coal, contributing significantly to the city’s air pollution and poor air quality. These informal settlements are now connected to the central grid for electricity after a multiyear project to improve electricity access and metering in Ulan Bator’s ger settlements.
Energy Outside Ulan Bator
The entire popuation of Mongolia had access to electricity in 2022, up from 85 percent in 2014. Access to centralized heating systems was not as pervasive, meaning that much of the rural population relied on traditional coal stoves for heating. Poor families could spend up to a third of their annual income on coal alone for heating.
Mongolia is a vast and sparsely populated territory. Thus, providing energy to all provincial towns through a central grid is not realistic. In neighboring districts, power lines extend hundreds of miles across uninhabited steppe from a central power grid in Ulan Bator. The harsh weather of the Mongolian steppe makes such long-distance power lines difficult to maintain. Closer to the western border, power is transmitted from a Russian hydroelectric facility into Mongolian towns. Other isolated regions have their own power grids, some fueled with diesel generators. Given the isolated nature of many of Mongolia’s settlements, there is great potential for decentralized, clean renewable energies.
Mongolia’s Energy Sources
Coal supplied about 70.8 percent of Mongolia’s energy as of 2021. Mongolia had proven coal reserves of 2.52 billion metric tons in 2022, with potential reserves of up to 100 billion tons. In 2023, output was about 81 million tons, the majority of which was used for steam heating and electricity provision. Despite large coal deposits, limited infrastructure creates challenges in transporting coal from mines to the populated areas where it is needed. Mongolia, with assistance from South Korea, is now pursuing clean-coal technologies to improve energy efficiency and reduce pollution.
The first small hydropower dam was built in 1959 with assistance from the Soviet Union. There were several small hydropower plants around the country and two large plants under construction; more are being discussed. The existing small hydropower plant is for summer production only, because the water freezes in winter. Critics are concerned about the negative environmental impact on Mongolia’s fragile steppe ecosystems that larger dams could create.
Large-scale solar and wind systems were being explored for remote communities, but these required a significant amount of investment. Multiple organizations helped to install solar power systems among herder communities and remote settlements that lack other modern energy services.
Bibliography
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“Mongolia: Leaving No One Behind.” United Nations Development Programme, 2024, www.undp.org/mongolia, Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.
Ritchie, Hannah, and Max Roser. "Mongolia: Energy Country Profile." Our World in Data, 2024, ourworldindata.org/energy/country/mongolia. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.