Google has signed an agreement with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners K/S (CIP) to buy electricity from the Danish firm’s wind farm off Taichung, CIP said in a statement yesterday.
Through its fifth flagship fund, Copenhagen Infrastructure V, CIP and Google last month signed a corporate power purchase agreement to buy power from CIP’s Fengmiao I (渢妙一期) offshore wind project.
It is the first agreement Google has made to buy offshore energy in Taiwan as well as in the Asia-Pacific region, CIP said.
Photo: CNA
Located about 35km off Taichung, the Fengmiao I project secured site exclusivity and 500-megawatt (MW) grid capacity in Taiwan’s Round 3.1 auction and is the first of Taiwan’s Round 3 Offshore Wind Zonal Development projects to reach financial close, as well as start construction.
Giorgio Fortunato, head of clean energy and power for Asia Pacific at Google, said in the statement that the agreement with CIP represented a new chapter for the tech company, as the project would provide reliable electricity to support the firm’s data center, cloud region and offices in Taiwan.
It also represented an integration of offshore wind energy development in Taiwan and Google’s clean energy efforts, Fortunato said.
Fengmiao I is to build 33 units of CIP’s latest 15MW turbines, CIP said, adding that the project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2027.
Fengmiao I — which has secured about NT$103 billion (US$3.17 billion) in financing from 27 international and Taiwanese banks and is gearing up to push for construction — is CIP’s most recent offshore wind project in Taiwan, after the construction of the Changfang (彰芳), Xidao (西島) and Zhongneng (中能) wind farms off Changhua County.
Thomas Wibe Poulsen, partner and head of Asia Pacific at CIP, said the agreement with Google regarding the Fengmiao I project was the second power purchasing agreement between the two sides.
In December last year, through CIP’s Energy Transition Fund, the two companies signed an agreement to buy renewable energy generated by the Zeevonk project in the Netherlands.
While tapping offshore wind energy in Taiwan, Google last week announced that it had signed a geothermal power purchase agreement with Baseload Power Taiwan Inc (台灣倍速羅得) to support clean energy development — its first such deal in the Asia-Pacific region.
Taiwan’s access to “substantial geothermal resources” could complement other renewable sources such as solar and wind, given the “significant potential” for using underground heat to generate clean electricity, Google said.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced