SoftBank Group Corp. plans to build more wind projects in Mongolia as Chairman Masayoshi Son pushes to connect countries across Asia with transmission lines to supply cheap, clean energy.
The Tokyo-based company's first wind farm in Mongolia is a 50-megawatt project being developed with Newcom LLC in Mongolia's Gobi Desert. The project is an outgrowth of a venture between Newcom and SoftBank's clean-energy unit called Clean Energy Asia LLC that was set up in 2012.
SoftBank is now looking into two more wind projects in Mongolia, with plans to possibly add 200 megawatts of solar and wind at the site of its first project, according to Shinsuke Moriya, who manages SoftBank's electricity business planning group. The expansion, capitalizing on Mongolia's abundant supply of flat land and attractive wind resources, would be part of a plan to eventually build 7 gigawatts or more of wind power in the country.