Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 14

AsiaElec RENEWABLES AsiaElec
Three Gorges’ $2.5bn IPO to fund offshore wind
HYDRO
CHINA Three Gorges Corp. (CTG) aims to raise CNY25bn ($3.5bn) through an IPO in Shanghai to help fund the construction of up to 2.2GW of offshore wind capacity.
State-owned CTG plans to sell up to 8.57bn shares belonging to its renewable subsidiary China Three Gorges Renewables, which oper- ates 10GW of solar, wind and small-scale hydro capacity.
The China Securities Regulatory Commis- sion said that it had received a pre-disclosure for the proposed listing, but it has yet to give its official approval.
The proceeds would be used to fund up to seven offshore wind farms in China, the com- pany said in the regulatory filing.
These include: Yangxi Shapa (300MW); Changyi City Marine Farm and Offshore Wind Demonstration Project (300MW); Yangxi Shapa Phase II (400MW); Zhangpu Liu’ao Offshore Wind Farm Zone D Project; Changle Waihai Offshore Wind Farm Area A Project; Jiangsu Rudong H6 (400MW) and Jiangsu Rudong H10 (400MW).
CTG said in late February that it had started building 2.2GW of capacity at two offshore wind projects and was expecting to start operations by 2021.
China added 2.3GW of offshore wind capac- ity in 2019, according to the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), while also opening 26.2GW onshore.
However, new wind installation could be hit by coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2020, with Wood Mackenzie in March cutting its forecast for global wind additions in 2020 by 4.9GW to 73GW, although this is still well above 2019’s addition of 62GW. China accounts for 2.9GW of the forecast cut, said the Edinburgh-based consultants.
If successful, the listing would be the sec- ond biggest in China in 2020, behind the Bei- jing-Shanghai High Speed Railway, whose January IPO raised $4.3bn, Bloomberg reported.
CTG’s IPO would also further cement the Shanghai Stock Exchange as the preferred IPO exchange in the region, having recently surpassed Hong Kong as the top listing destination.™
innogy joins Taiwan’s offshore wind boom
TAIWAN
INNOGY has joined Asia Cement Corp’s (ACC) 448-MW Chu Feng offshore wind project in Tai- wan as the German company aims to break into the expanding Asian offshore market.
The German company has entered into a stra- tegic partnership with Asia Cement to bid for the Chu Feng project in Taiwan’s next grid allocation round for offshore capacity.
The Chu Feng offshore wind farm is located off the north-west coast of Taiwan near Hsinchu City, in the wind-rich Taiwan Strait. The project is expected to participate in the next grid alloca- tion round in Taiwan.
“The government has plans to considerably increase the role of offshore wind energy in Tai- wan’s electricity production,” Sven Utermöhlen, senior vice-president renewables operations off- shore at innogy SE, explained.
”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 know-how, and who share our ambition to drive the growth of offshore wind in Taiwan.”
In 2018, ACC secured a loan commitment from a group of Taiwanese state-owned and
private-sector banks as well as foreign lenders for NTD60bn ($2.05bn).
innogy opened a local office in Taipei in 2018 to drive its business in Taiwan and the wider Asia-Pacific region.
The company is involved in the deploy- ment of 2,500MW of offshore wind capacity in Europe, and is now developing worldwide. Chu Feng is its first project in Asia. It sees the part- nership for the Chu Feng offshore wind project as a perfect strategic fit and another milestone in capturing value-accretive growth options in the field of offshore wind.
Henry Wu, the CEO of the Chu Feng Pre- paratory Office, said: “We are pleased that innogy, with their extensive offshore wind expe- rience, are on board with us in the development of the Chu Feng offshore wind project. The Far Eastern Group is committed to develop green energy to reduce our carbon footprint and sup- port the government in meeting its renewable energy targets.” ACC is part of Taiwanese indus- trial conglomerate Far Eastern Group.
The Taiwanese government aims to have 5.5GW of operating offshore wind capacity by 2025, as well as 10-17GW by 2030.™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 14 08•April•2020