Totalenergies, Corio Collaborate for Offshore Wind in Taiwan

Global renewable energy firms TotalEnergies and Corio Generation have signed a joint venture partnership to develop the Formosa 3 offshore windfarms in Taiwan. Under this agreement, the UK-headquartered Corio will remain the majority shareholder and lead developer with 50% plus 10 shares overall in project.

The announcement comes after Taiwan’s Bureau of Energy confirmed in late December 2022 that Formosa 3’s Haiding 2 windfarm had been successfully awarded 600 MW grid capacity following the first phase of Taiwan’s Round 3 auctions.

TotalEnergies said that Formosa 3 project comprises three proposed windfarms – Haiding 1, 2 and 3 – in Changhua county on the central-western coast of Taiwan. The project received Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) approvals in 2018, with an EIA-approved capacity of around 2 GW.

As per TotalEnergies, the windfarm development will contribute to Taiwan’s ambitious plans for the green energy transition. It also 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’ project shareholdings, according to TotalEnergies. Corio claims to have one of the largest offshore wind project portfolios worldwide with more than 20 GW in development.

“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 17 GW in 2022 to 35 GW in 2025, in line with our ambition to be one of the top 5 renewables developers by 2030.” said Vincent Stoquart, Senior VP, TotalEnergies.

Jonathan Cole, CEO, Corio Generation, stated, “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 windfarms will support job creation and provide many opportunities for local businesses to participate in the green energy transition.”

The partnership announced in Taiwan is the latest example of TotalEnergies and Corio, combining their leading industrial, technical, and financial expertise to pursue offshore wind opportunities across the world.

This is not the first time that TotalEnergies and Corio are executing a wind facility together. Their other works include the 2 GW West of Orkney Windfarm project in Scotland, the 1.5 GW Outer Dowsing Offshore Wind project in England and over 2 GW of floating wind projects in South Korea.