UK Export Finance (UKEF), the UK Government’s export credit agency, has agreed to provide £380m ($466m) of funding for the 1GW Hai Long offshore wind project in Taiwan.

This supports the more than £3bn funding package secured by Hai Long’s developers, Japanese conglomerate Mitsui and Canada’s Northland Power.

The developers reached the final investment decision on the project in September 2023.

UKEF was one of seven export credit agencies that guaranteed the financing package.

The financing from UKEF will result in UK manufacturing and service export contracts valued at more than £130m.  

To be located 45–70km offshore Changhua County, the Hai Long wind farm will be built in three sections: HL2A (294MW), HL2B (224MW) and HL3 (504MW).

While the output from HL2A will be supplied to the Taiwan Power Company under a 20-year power purchase agreement, the outputs from HL2B and HL3 will be sold to a private off-taker for a 30-year period.

These sections are expected to begin operations sequentially from the end of 2025.

The wind farm will generate enough clean energy to power a million Taiwanese households.

This is UKEF’s fourth deal to support an offshore project in Taiwan and helps realise its commitment to invest more than £1.2bn in Asia-Pacific.

With this investment, the export credit agency continues to broaden its portfolio of renewable energy projects that support the global transition towards net zero.

UKEF CEO Tim Reid stated: “Clean energy projects like Hai Long are a priority for UK Export Finance as we engage with global efforts to reach net zero.

“With the recent OECD arrangement modernisation increasing the range of support which we can offer for climate-friendly projects, we can expect to see and support more multi-agency transactions like this in the future that will benefit British businesses.”

Northland Power CEO Mike Crawley stated: “The Hai Long financing is Northland’s first in Asia, and once operational the project will diversify our cash flows and provide significant value for our shareholders.

“Hai Long will play an important role in helping the Government of Taiwan achieve its renewable energy target of 15GW of offshore wind. Northland strongly appreciates the important role that UKEF has played in the Hai Long project financing.”