As the global focus sharpens on combating climate change and Taiwan makes significant strides towards a greener future, the role of innovative financial solutions in renewable energy projects cannot be overstated. Maiora Renewable Energy is at the forefront of the island’s burgeoning solar power market, helping international investment gain momentum in Taiwan’s journey toward a greener energy mix.

“On paper, Taiwan has a the framework in place  to make renewable energy projects economically successful – the availability of long-term feed-in tariffs, project financing, and a stable regulatory environment,” says Maiora Chairman Marzio Keiling. “These factors allow you to finance and build a project with a fairly stable long-term view.”

Maiora, a global leader in developing, financing, and applying practical solutions to the problems created by global warming through solar energy innovation, is mission-bound to harness the nation’s potential. “We certainly want to stay in Taiwan for new opportunities and to build up a significant portfolio of utility-scale solar projects,” says Keiling. The company is aiming to do as much as possible to bring in international companies that are trying to find their place in the Taiwan market.

However, the solar power pioneer has its gaze primarily fixed on executing its portfolio of solar energy projects totaling 500MW to significantly help reduce reliance on fossil fuels. After initially developing, building, and operating projects in Japan and learning industry ins and outs, Maiora is bringing its expertise to Taiwan one megawatt at a time.

Many factors may make Taiwan an attractive place for investment, but the company has grappled with the complexity of the multi-authority, multi-channel domestic approval processes.

Like any transmission network accommodating renewables, Taiwan’s grid will face mounting challenges as renewable adoption increases, giving rise to a need for grid redesign and advanced storage solutions, says Keiling. These systems are essential for balancing supply and demand, ensuring that energy produced during peak conditions can be utilized during periods of low generation. Furthermore, the current predominance of lithium-ion batteries as a storage solution presents several challenges, including issues related to mining, production sourcing, and, eventually, disposal.

“We’ve just signed a syndicated loan facility agreement with our banking partners for one of our projects in May – the first CPPA-based project financing for solar projects in Taiwan,” says Maiora Project Finance Director Chang Yang Chih. “We’ve successfully constructed a new and feasible financing structure, incorporating the CPPA, with the domestic banks.”

Corporate power purchase agreements (CPPA) in Taiwan can be challenging to obtain but are an attractive alternative to traditional feed-in tariff mechanisms. Fortunately for future project investors, understanding the risk appetites of domestic banks and local lenders and how they would like the project to be structured requires a skill set Chang has spent his career mastering.

Chang started as a management associate at Cathay United Bank, the largest non-governmental commercial bank in Taiwan, in 2014. He’s been able to leverage his experience previewing cases to know the questions banks will ask before they even reach the negotiation table.

Now that the team has gotten the banks to accept and understand the risks and rewards of a CPPA mechanism, that opens up the door for every company that comes later, says Chang. With better revenue bases, investors like Maiora will be able to invest in a wider range of projects. The company’s thorough feasibility studies conducted to evaluate financial viability give its partners a 360 view of Taiwan’s banking landscape, allowing for more robust investment opportunities.

However, the decision to engage in renewable energy ventures often begins with a realization: achieving success in this field demands more than just individual effort. The nature of renewable energy projects, which are both capital-intensive and technologically demanding, necessitates collaboration and strategic partnerships.

“We all come together as a team to ensure that every aspect of the project, including permitting, engineering, financing, insurance, and corporate power purchase, are well designed, structured, coordinated, and executed so that the project can be operating in great condition for a very long time,” Chang says. He adds that these assurances play an important part in making lenders comfortable in financing their projects.