TotalEnergies and Corio Generation have formed a JV to develop the Formosa 3 offshore wind farms in Taiwan.
Under this agreement, Corio will remain the majority shareholder and lead developer with 50% plus 10 shares overall in the project.
The announcement comes after Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy confirmed in late December 2022 that Formosa 3’s Haiding 2 wind farm had been successfully awarded 600MW grid capacity following the first phase of Taiwan’s Round 3 auctions.
The Formosa 3 development comprises three proposed wind farms – Haiding 1, 2 and 3 – in Changhua county on the central-western coast of Taiwan.
The site received Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approvals in 2018, with an EIA-approved capacity of around 2GW.
The wind farm development is expected to contribute to Taiwan’s ambitious plans for the green energy transition and represents a multi-billion investment from the partners and project lenders up to the end of construction.
Future investments will be made in proportion to the partners’ development shareholdings.
TotalEnergies senior vice-president for renewables Vincent Stoquart said: “We are very pleased to team up again with our strategic partner Corio, this time to develop offshore wind in Taiwan.
“This marks a new step toward supporting Taiwan’s energy transition, bringing sustainable, low-cost energy to the country.
“It also demonstrates our dedication to build up our global multi-energy business model through a series of investments to grow our worldwide renewable portfolio from 17GW in 2022 to 35GW in 2025, in line with our ambition to be one of the top five renewables developers by 2030.
Corio Generation chief executive Jonathan Cole added: “We are thrilled to welcome TotalEnergies as our partner in building offshore wind farms in Taiwan.
“Our two companies have a long-standing relationship and strong track record in developing projects across Europe and Asia-Pacific and so we are absolutely delighted to be working together again in Taiwan.
“Corio has one of the largest offshore wind portfolios worldwide with more than 20 GW in development.
“As a transformative source of clean and reliable energy, we believe offshore wind offers huge benefits to Taiwan’s communities and economy.
“The Formosa 3 wind farms will support job creation and provide many opportunities for local businesses to participate in the green energy transition.”