A consortium led by Sojitz Corp said it has signed a share purchase agreement with German wind farm developer Wpd AG to acquire a 27 percent stake in Yunlin HD through Starwind Offshore GmbH.
The agreement allows Sojitz and other consortium members to participate in the construction and operation of an offshore wind farm in Taiwan, the Japanese firm said in a statement on Friday last week.
The acquisition would be made through Starwind, a German holding company established jointly between Sojitz, JXTG Nippon Oil & Energy Corp, Chugoku Electric Power Co Inc, Chudenko Corp and Shikoku Electric Power Co Inc, the statement said.
The acquisition should finish late next month, once necessary procedures have been completed, the statement said.
Sojitz’s equity holdings in Starwind and Yunlin HD would give the company a 9.1 percent stake in Yunneng Wind Power Co Ltd, a project company for the construction and operation of the Yunlin offshore wind farm.
The venture is Sojitz’s first foray into electric power generation and offshore wind farms in Taiwan.
Wpd, a German firm that specializes in wind farms, including offshore projects, would own the remaining 73 percent.
“With the acquisition of the consortium around Sojitz as a coinvestor, we could achieve another important milestone for the project, securing the equity financing for what is so far the largest offshore wind farm in Taiwan.” Wpd merger and acquisitions head Helge Rau said.
Headquartered in Bremen, Germany, the company is the largest private renewable energy developer and operator in Taiwan.
Wpd has installed 2,200 wind turbines with a total capacity of 4,450 megawatts (MW) around the world.
The Ministry of Economics earlier this month announced that Wpd has been awarded a total capacity of 1 gigawatt (GW).
The cost of both projects is to total about US$4.5 billion.
The company is to construct a 640MW offshore wind farm in waters 8km off the coast of Yunlin County — one of the largest projects in the nation.
Complying with the feed-in tariff scheme under the Renewable Energy Development Act, the wind farm would sell power at NT$5.8 per kilowatt-hour to state-run Taiwan Power Co for 20 years.
Construction is scheduled for March next year, Wdp said.
Taiwan aims to construct a total of 5.5GW in offshore wind power by 2025, in line with Article 23 of the Basic Environment Act.
Promulgated in 2002, the Basic Environment Act says that the government will establish plans to gradually achieve the goal of becoming a nuclear-free country.
Comments are closed