Google has invested in Taiwan’s New Green Power and plans to purchase potentially 300 megawatts of renewable energy from the firm, owned by BlackRock. This initiative is aimed at reducing both Google’s carbon emissions and those associated with its suppliers. Meeting stringent investor and regulatory pressures, Big Tech companies like Google have set ambitious goals to decrease greenhouse gas emissions across their operations and supply chains. Google is committed to achieving operations that are consistently powered by carbon-free energy worldwide.
Taiwan, a major site for Google’s cloud technology with a data centre and company offices, still relied on fossil fuels to generate nearly 85% of its power, Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s Global Head of Data Center Energy, stated in an interview with Reuters. “The goal of this investment is really to support the build out of a large-scale solar pipeline in Taiwan,” Corio added.
According to David Giordano, BlackRock’s Global Head of Climate Infrastructure, New Green Power, managed by a fund under BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure business, is a prominent solar developer and operator in Taiwan. Google and BlackRock did not disclose the exact equity stake in NGP, but Amanda Peterson Corio mentioned that the investment aims to support both equity and debt financing for the expansion of its 1 gigawatt (GW) pipeline.
BlackRock stated that Taiwan aims to achieve 20 GW of solar capacity by 2025 and up to 80 GW by 2050. Amanda Peterson Corio mentioned that in addition to using purchased solar power for its operations, Google plans to offer some to its suppliers and manufacturers in the region. This move is aimed at reducing Google’s Scope 3 emissions, which are associated with its value chain.