The German-based wind farm developer wpd AG announced that Taiwanese and German wpd-teams are working very hard and permanently to advance the construction and realization of its wind onshore and offshore projects in Taiwan. Currently, the teams are looking for the appropriate suppliers to 60 onshore-turbines in total by 2020. "We can confirm the announced investments and we are not going to sell any project rights, neither wind onshore nor wind offshore", says Dr. Gernot Blanke, CEO of wpd AG.

The strategic direction of the company includes an expansion of project pipelines and assets. The team will be expanded in order to develop, construct and operate the wind farms.

With respect to the offshore windfarms Yunlin (2020) and Guanyin (2021), the company is in advanced discussions with manufacturers and suppliers with the aim of closing already at the end of 2018. "Currently, we are putting together the banking syndicate and we're already in an advanced stage of discussion with many local and international banks", comments Björn Nullmeyer, responsible for project finance of the two Taiwanese offshore windfarms. In addition to SMBC as financial advisor to Yunlin and Guanyin, wpd has involved Taiwan's largest state-owned bank, Bank of Taiwan as co-advisor, and E-Sun as local advisor in structuring the financing. Project costs of Yunlin and Guanyin amount to € 4 billion. For Yunlin, financial close is targeted by the end of 2018.

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