Assessment of Domestic Resources for Enhancing Electricity Production in Mongolia

Mongolia faces an electricity deficit due to 8-10<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">%</sup> annual consumption growth, driven by industrial/mining expansion (+9.2% GDP, 2023) and urbanization (69% in Ulaanbaatar, 2023), with a projected 1.95 GW shortage by 2030. This article provides a comprehensive assessment of the country's energy potential, focusing on renewable energy sources (RES). The research methodology includes a systematic analysis of generation sources, calculation of technical potential using data from the Global Wind, Solar, and Hydro Atlas, and evaluation of the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE). Technical potential assessments, considering existing technologies and excluding economic feasibility, reveal coal (99.9 TWh/year), wind (11.8 TWh/year), hydropower (3.7 GWh/year), solar (40.05 TWh/year), and nuclear (72.3 GWh/year). Current annual consumption is 8.85 TWh/year. The findings reveal that the total technical potential of all energy sources (notably coal and solar energy) significantly exceeds domestic demand, thereby enabling full energy self-sufficiency, reducing import reliance, and addressing the power deficit.