Mitsui & Co and Northland Power Inc (北陸能源) are to invest in a ￥960 billion (US$6.5 billion) offshore wind project off Taiwan’s east coast that would generate enough electricity for 1 million households.
Seventy-three large turbines would be installed in the offshore area about 45 to 70km off of Changhua County, with power being produced from the end of 2025 and the project being completed a year later, the Japanese company said in a statement released yesterday. Mitsui would have a 40 percent shareholding in the development, which would have a 1,022 megawatt capacity.
The rest of the Hai Long Offshore Wind Power Project (海龍離岸風電計畫) would be owned by Northland, a Canadian company, Mitsui said.
Photo: Bloomberg
Agreements have been signed to sell the green electricity to Taiwan Power Co (台電) under a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) and to a private power user in Taiwan under a 30-year PPA.
The investment decision comes as soaring costs derail offshore wind projects around the globe, even as demand for renewable power has jumped. Mitsui, one of the largest Japanese trading houses, is trying to move away from fossil fuels, while Taiwan is targeting 5.6 gigawatts of offshore wind capacity by 2025, up from just 237 megawatt in 2021.
Mitsui plans to invest ￥260 billion in the project, while ￥540 billion would be raised via financing, it said. The company’s shares fell 1.9 percent as of 2:21pm in Tokyo yesterday, outpacing a 0.5 percent drop in the Nikkei index.
Separately, the Hai Long Offshore Wind Project announced yesterday that it has signed credit agreements for NT$118 billion (US$3.67 million) in long-term financing. Once financing is completed, it would be the largest offshore wind project financing to date in Taiwan and the Asia-Pacific region, according to a statement posted on its Web site. This not only signifies a big milestone for the project, but also demonstrates a new page for the nation’s green finance.
The project is expected to be connected to the power generation grid between 2025 and 2026, the statement said. Creating more than 5,000 jobs throughout its lifetime, the Hai Long Project would become the largest single wind farm in Taiwan and supply electricity to more than 1 million households, it said.
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Starlux Airlines Co (星宇航空) today unveiled a long-haul network expansion plan at a shareholders’ meeting in Taipei, including direct flights to Barcelona, Spain, and Zurich, Switzerland, as well as a service connecting Taipei, Sydney and New Zealand. Starlux is to become the first Taiwanese carrier to offer non-stop services to the two European cities, while the inaugural oceanic route is expected to expand transit opportunities within the Australia-New Zealand market, Starlux said. Flight services to Chicago, Dallas, Washington and New York are under evaluation, the airline added. Prior to the shareholders’ meeting, the airline earlier this year announced that it would be
Taiwanese prosecutors suspect that three people successfully smuggled at least one shipment of Nvidia Corp artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China after first exporting them to Japan, people familiar with the matter said. The trio was detained last week by the Keelung District Prosecutors’ Office for allegedly falsifying documents related to exports of Super Micro Computer Inc servers containing advanced Nvidia chips, which the US has barred from sale to China without a license from Washington. The move marked Taiwan’s first public crackdown on AI chip diversion after years of pressure from the US to take a more active role in curtailing
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) employee bonuses are likely to grow more than 30 percent this year, in line with the past few years as the company’s profits continue to set new records, an anonymous source cited TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) as saying yesterday. TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is committed to taking care of its workers, the source said, citing Wei’s meeting with employees yesterday morning. Wei also expressed gratitude to employees for their contribution to the company’s improving bottom line, the source added. Since 2023, TSMC’s employee bonuses have grown at an annual rate of
RSS