Sinohydro signs renewables investment agreement in inner Mongolia

A local government in Inner Mongolia has made a deal with two entities of China's Sinohydro Corp. chosen to develop 300 MW of renewable power capacity in the region.

A development cooperation and investment agreement was signed on June 25th between the Plain and Bordered White Banner (administrative division) of Inner Mongolia, China, and Sinohydro Engineering Bureau No. 4 along with Sinohydro Renewable Energy Co. The deal also includes the construction of a local tower factory.

The projects will consist of approximately 300 MW of combined wind and solar photovoltaic (PV) sites.

Sinohydro's renewables division signed a separate wind deal with the government in Hunan province earlier this month, granting the development of up to 100 MW worth of capacity in the county of Guiyang, Chenzhou city.

To take advantage of its excellent wind and solar resources, Mongolia aims to expand renewable energy generation capacity from 2 % to 20-25 % by 2020. While some progress has been made, the scale-up of modern energy services and supply has been slow. This has mainly been due to the difficulty of accessing long-term commercial financing as well as weak institutional and technical capacity of the grid-company and regulators.