By Christie U. Omonigho
- Yunlin offshore wind farm is now fully operational
- It will power 600,000 homes in Taiwan and save 1.2 million tons of CO2 annually
- TotalEnergies to serve as the wind farm’s technical operator
During a ceremony held in Taipei, TotalEnergies and its partners announced the successful inauguration of the Yunlin offshore wind farm in Taiwan, which is now fully operational and generating renewable electricity at its planned capacity of 640 MW according to TotalEnergies.
It is new milestone for TotalEnergies who says it holds a 29.46% stake in Yunneng Wind Power Co., Ltd., the joint venture responsible for the project. Other stakeholders include Skyborn Renewables with 31.98%, EGCO Group with 26.56%, and Sojitz with 12%.
Skyborn has led the development and construction of the Yunlin project, with the support of the other partners. TotalEnergies will take the lead in technical operations management following the Commercial Operations Date (COD), expected in June 2025, whilst Skyborn Renewables will continue to lead other management services.
“We are very pleased to be inaugurating the Yunlin offshore wind farm, as we take a new step forward in our offshore wind development”, says Olivier Jouny, Senior Vice President Renewables at TotalEnergies. “This 640 MW project will help us achieve our 2025 targets for 35 GW of gross renewable capacity and over 50 TWh of net electricity production, amounting to 10% of TotalEnergies’ energy output. Our role as technical operator on Yunlin will allow us to strengthen our offshore wind competencies as we look ahead to our future projects in Germany, Denmark, and the United Kingdom”, he added.
In Asia, TotalEnergies owns a renewable energy portfolio (solar, wind, batteries) of over 23 GW gross, across all stages, from development to construction and operation. Of this capacity, 50% is already operational or under construction, the French Major said.
The Yunlin offshore wind, regarded as one of the largest offshore wind farms in Taiwan is located about 15 kilometers off the west coast of Taiwan, at water depths of up to 35 meters. The project consists of 80 wind turbines, each with 8 MW capacity. The electricity generated is fed into the Taiwanese grid and contracted to Taiwan Power Company (TPC) through two 20-year Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) at an average rate of $165/MWh, TotalEnergies said.
The farm also produces 2.4 TWh of renewable electricity per year, powering over 600,000 Taiwanese households and reducing CO2 emissions by approximately 1.2 million tons.
As part of its ambition to get to net zero by 2050, TotalEnergies says it is building a world class cost-competitive portfolio combining renewables (solar, onshore and offshore wind) and flexible assets (CCGT, storage) to deliver clean firm power to its customers. The company said that by the end of 2024, its gross renewable electricity generation installed capacity reached 26 GW. Adding that it will continue to expand this business to reach 35 GW in 2025 and more than 100 TWh of net electricity production by 2030.
The company said that the total capacity of its portfolio in offshore wind at the moment is 23 GW, with most “farms bottom-fixed.” Adding that all of these projects are located in the United Kingdom (Seagreen, Outer Dowsing, West of Orkney, Erebus), South Korea (Bada), Taiwan (Yunlin, Haiding 2), France (Eolmed), the United States (Attentive Energy and Carolina Long Bay), in the Netherlands (OranjeWind), in Germany (Nordsee Energies 1 & 2, Ostsee Energies, N-9.1 and N-9.2).