Power Technology

Taiwan’s Hai Long offshore wind farm reaches financial close

To become operational in 2025/26, the wind farm will generate enough power for a million Taiwanese homes.

Canadian utility Northland Power and its partners have satisfied all the conditions for the T$117bn ($3.6bn) financial close on the Hai Long offshore wind farm, to be located offshore Taiwan.

Financing for the project is being provided by 16 international and local financial institutions: ANZ, Crédit Agricole CIB, CTBC, DBS, Deutsche Bank, Fubon Bank, Fubon Life, HSBC, JBIC Direct Loan, the Korea Development Bank, Mizuho, MUFG, Shinsei Bank, SMBC, Standard Chartered Bank and Taiwan Life.

Hai Long chairman David Povall stated: “For Hai Long, reaching financial close is a significant achievement that highlights the viability of offshore wind as a source of sustainable energy and demonstrates the ability of international investors to collaborate to achieve a common goal. It also underlines Taiwan’s commitment to becoming a leading player in the global renewable energy market.

“We are very pleased with the extraordinary effort put forth by our team, our partners, the government and the project’s financiers, all working together to achieve this milestone for the project.”

Located between 45km and 70km offshore Changhua in the Taiwan Strait, the wind farm will be built in two phases, Hai Long 2 and 3, and will have a power-generating capacity of 1.02GW.

The project secured grid capacity under the country’s first competitive auction held in 2018. Hai Long 2A secured 300MW of grid capacity under a feed-in-tariff, while Hai Long 2B & 3 secured 744MW, and a corporate power purchase agreement for 744MW capacity was signed.

All the environmental approvals and construction permits have also been received and early construction work and fabrication of key components have begun.

The wind farm is expected to begin operations in 2025/26. The project will generate sufficient power for one million Taiwanese homes.

It will also support Taiwan’s 15GW offshore wind capacity goals between 2026 and 2035.

In September 2023, Northland Power obtained T$118bn in credit for the project. This sum was later reduced to T$117bn due to final foreign exchange rates at closure.