Project costs of WPD’s up to 700MW Yunlin and 350MW Guanyin offshore wind farms in Taiwan will be about €4bn.
The German developer said it aims to close agreements with manufacturers and suppliers for the projects before the end of 2018, in parallel with financial close for Yunlin.
Bjorn Nullmeyer, WPD executive in charge of project finance for the two offshore wind farms, said: “Currently, we are putting together the banking syndicate and we’re already in an advanced stage of discussion with many local and international banks.”
WPD has contracted Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp as financial advisor for the projects and Bank of Taiwan as co-advisor. E-Sun will act as local advisor for the structuring of the financing.
WPD executive Gernot Blanke said that the company is not planning to sell the rights to develop the projects.
Earlier this week, a Bloomberg news story cited unnamed sources claiming WPD is seeking investors to take an equity stake worth at least $1bn or potentially acquire the whole company.
Yunlin will be built first, with commissioning scheduled for 2020-21, while Guanyin is set to come online in 2021.
Image: WPD


