Total has signed an agreement with wpd to acquire a 23 per cent interest in Yunlin Holding GmbH. The latter owns the 640 MW Yunlin offshore wind farm, which is currently under construction around 200 km southwest of Taipei, off the coast of Taiwan. For this acquisition, Total will pay to wpd a consideration based on its share of past costs.
The wind farm is located about 10 km offshore at water depths ranging from 7 to 35 meters. It will consist of 80 wind turbines with each having a unit capacity of 8 MW. Procurement of the main components has been finalised and marine works are under way. The first wind turbine was installed on April 23, 2021. Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2022. Once operational, the project will produce 2.4 TWh of renewable electricity per year, enough to serve the power needs of 605,000 households.
The project has already signed a 20-year guaranteed-price power purchase agreement with the state-owned company Taipower As per the agreement, the power produced by the wind farm will be sold at $ 0.250 per kWh for the first 10 years and $0.125 per kWh for the next 10 years.
The project is currently 48 per cent-owned by wpd, 25 per cent by EGCO (Electricity Generating Public Company Limited) and 27 per cent by a consortium of Japanese investors led by Sojitz (Sojitz Corporation, ENEOS Corporation, Chugoku Electric Power, Chudenko Corporation and Shikoku Electric Power). Subject to government approval, this acquisition will broaden Total’s portfolio of offshore wind projects under development and construction, that currently represents a cumulative capacity of about 5.5 GW. As part of its ambition to get to net zero by 2050, Total is building a portfolio of activities in renewables and electricity that should account for up to 40 per cent of its sales by 2050.
