German wind and solar developer wpd has signed a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) with a Taiwanese company for over 1 GW of wind capacity, with over 500 MW expected to come from onshore wind. A direct purchase cooperation agreement has been signed by wpd Dade Energy Group with the said corporate procurer for projects with a capacity of up to 1.2 GW. As per wpd, this is the largest green CPPA in Asia.
At present, wpd is engaged in the development of three offshore wind projects in Taiwan. These projects have a combined capacity of around 1.6 GW. The company is developing the 640 MW Yunlin offshore wind farm in Taiwan. The wind farm is located 10 kilometers offshore at water depths ranging from 7 to 35 metres. The project will entail 80 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines with a unit capacity of 8 MW. The first set of wind turbines were commissioned for delivering electricity in November 2021. The wind farm is scheduled to be fully operational in 2022. Further, the 350 MW Taoyuan offshore wind farm located in Dayuan District and Guanyin District of Taiwan is also being developed by the company. In 2020, wpd signed an agreement with Taiwan Green Power to jointly develop a 600 MW offshore wind project off the coast of Changhua County.
Previously, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company signed a similar CPPA with Ørsted for the entire output of Greater Changhua 2b & 4 offshore wind farms with a combined capacity of 920 MW.
REGlobal’s Views: Corporate power purchase agreements are increasingly gaining traction across the globe as large and medium sized companies opt for greener operational strategies to attract a wider consumer as well as investor base. These companies buy green certificates, set up onsite renewable energy projects and procure green power from offsite projects in order to also reduce operational costs as renewable energy from solar and wind is cheaper than fossil fuel power in many countries.
