RWE enters Taiwanese offshore wind market

Asia Cement

02/04/2020 12:05

FRANKFURT, April 2 (Reuters) - RWE  RWEG.DE , Europe's
third-largest renewables group, is partnering with Taiwan's Asia
Cement Corp  1102.TW  to enter one of the strongest-growing
offshore wind markets outside Europe, its renewable arm said on
Thursday.
    The partnership is for the Chu Feng offshore wind project,
which intends to participate in the next grid allocation round
in Taiwan's offshore auction, Innogy  IGY.DE , whose renewable
activities are part of RWE, said in a statement.
    The project has a planned installed capacity of up to 448
megawatts (MW) and, if realised, will be located off the
northwest coast near Hsinchu City in the Taiwan Strait.
    Apart from the United States, Taiwan is one of the
fastest-growing markets for offshore wind outside Europe, and
aims to have 15.5 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity by 2035.
Europe, the world's top market, had 22 GW as of 2019.
    "The Chu Feng project will enable us to enter this growing
market with a strong local partner at our side, whose local
expertise complements our global experience and technical
knowhow," Sven Utermoehlen, senior vice president Renewables
Operations Offshore at Innogy, said.
    European offshore wind players have flocked to Taiwan to
fill their pipelines with new projects, most notably Denmark's
Orsted  ORSTED.CO , the world's largest operator of offshore
wind parks.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N22C3OK
    RWE became the world's No.2 by taking over the renewables
activities of E.ON  EONGn.DE  and Innogy.
    Its move comes shortly after smaller German rival EnBW
 EBKG.DE  brought in Japan's JERA - a joint venture of Tokyo
Electric Power Co  9501.T  and Chubu Electric Power  9502.T  -
to take a stake in Taiwan's Formosa 3 wind project, which is
also co-owned by Macquarie  MQG.AX .  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL8N2B218S

 (Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Mark Potter)
 ((christoph.steitz@thomsonreuters.com; +49 69 7565 1269;
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