Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) said Wednesday it had been allocated 500–600 MW of capacity in the first round of Taiwan’s Round 3 Zonal Development offshore wind auction.
"On December 14, 2022, it was announced that CI IV’s [a CIP subsidiary] Fengmiao offshore wind project, located ~35km off the coast of Taichung City in the Western part of Taiwan, was awarded 500-600 MW capacity for grid connection in 2027.
Final capacity is subject to government announcement expected later in the month. CIP expects to start construction works on Fengmiao in 2025 and the project to start operations in 2027," CIP said.
Thomas Wibe Poulsen, Partner in Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, said:“We are very pleased with the awarded grid allocation to Fengmiao and we look forward to extending our contribution to Taiwan’s energy transition policy. Taiwan is a key offshore wind market for CIP, and Fengmiao further enhances our existing portfolio in Taiwan. We will now accelerate our efforts to finalize the procurement and offtake arrangements to support our final investment decision.”
CIP entered Taiwan’s offshore wind market in 2017 and Fengmiao is CIP’s third offshore wind project in Taiwan. In April 2018 CIP was awarded ~900MW capacity across two projects which are currently under construction: the 595MW Changfang and Xidao offshore wind farm and the 298MW Zhong Neng offshore wind farm, the latter a joint venture between CI IV and China Steel Corporation (CSC).
“Since entering Taiwan, we have worked alongside the Taiwanese government and local companies to develop and mature the local supply chains, and we remain faithful that the Taiwan government will soon announce an administrative contract which properly addresses the complexity and encourages the execution and on-time delivery of Round 3 projects,” Poulsen said.