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Taiwan’s solar market is now noticeable to the world! Partners Group, Switzerland-based private markets investment manager, is going to invest over US$200 million to control the majority stake in a Taiwanese solar power development platform, of which Taiwan’s local financial company, Cathay Life Insurance, will acquire ya minority stake. Furthermore, Partners Group has entered into an agreement with Taiwan’s local PV developer Sinogreenergy (SGE) to develop up to 550MW of solar power plants across the island over the next thre years.
Describing Taiwan as “one of Asia's largest and most sophisticated economies,” Benjamin Haan, Managing Director and Head Private Infrastructure Asia-Pacific, Partners Group, believes that this is a great opportunity to build a sizable solar platform in Taiwan because “our investment comes at an inflection point in the Taiwanese renewable energy sector,” noted Haan.
As a global investor, Partners Group has noticed Taiwan’s newly elected government has tripled her solar installation target from 6.2GW to 20GW by 2025.
“The newly elected government's solar energy targets coupled with the re-zoning of idle agricultural land for solar ground-mount installation will provide the necessary scale and support for our platform,” added Andrew Kwok, Senior Vice President, Private Infrastructure Asia-Pacific, Partners Group. “We look forward to helping the government achieve its commitment to supporting the renewable sector in Taiwan."
SGE has been selected as Partners Group’s exclusive partner in Taiwan and the two parties aims to develop a portfolio of up to 550MW of solar power plants across Taiwan over the next three years. This partnership will be a strong support to Taiwan’s renewable energy sector.
As one of Taiwan’s largest solar power developers, owners as well as EPC and O&M service providers, SGE has secured a number of sites throughout Taiwan for building rooftop and ground-mounted solar projects. All the projects will be connected to the grid, and the electricity generated will be acquired by Taipower, the state-owned uility, by a 20-year power purchase agreement.
Starting from 2010, Partners Group has made five solar sector investments globally, including a US$100 million investment in U.S. developer, owner and operator Silicon Ranch Corporation, and an investment in establishing Japan Solar, a solar platform focusing on building large-scale solar power plants. The investment in Taiwan is the very latest one, and the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2016.
(Photo: a screenshot of Sinogreenergy's promotion video)