Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) has funding in place for almost 600MW of offshore wind in Taiwan after agreeing $3bn of project financing with a clutch of bankers and export credit agencies.
The 589MW Changfang and Xidao project will be financed by equity and loans from a 25-strong consortium of local and international banks and other institutions, including CIP’s own Copenhagen Infrastructure II fund.
The Danish investor hailed a first for the project in the Taiwanese sector earlier this year when Taiwan Life and TransGlobe Life Insurance (TGL) took a 12.5% stake in the development.
A local content plan for the development was approved in 2019 – a key challenge for all players in the Taiwanese market, where localisation is a major concern for national and local authorities alike.
“Since we entered the Taiwan offshore wind market in 2017 we have worked intensively with Taiwanese companies and the government to build up the local supply chain and we are therefore proud to deliver the project with the highest extent of localisation in Taiwan to date” said Jesper Krarup Holst, CEO of the project company.
CIP will equip Changfang and Xidao with 62 9.5MW turbines from MHI Vestas after securing support for the projects in the early wave of Taiwanese offshore wind rounds that will propel the island to 5.5GW of deployment by 2025.
New international players from Japan and Europe are tipped to be lining up bids for a share of Taiwan’s next 10GW of offshore wind development, with the island’s government poised to unveil details of its plans following January’s reelection of pro-renewables president Tsai Ing-wen.
Long-awaited allocation rules for the island’s “third-stage” offshore wind projects for development between 2026-2035 are expected by the end of the current first quarter. They were initially due to be released in March 2019 but were delayed amid political uncertainty before the election.
