Google invests in Taiwanese solar energy company owned by major investment firm

Google has invested in Taiwan’s New Green Power, a solar company owned by BlackRock, to access renewable energy and reduce its carbon footprint. According to a report by Reuters news agency, the move is in line with growing investor pressure on big tech companies to be more sustainable. While Google aims to use zero-emission energy globally, the growing energy demand of the tech giant’s data centers for training AI-based chatbots poses a challenge.


What Google said about this investment

In a statement to Reuters, Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global director of data center energy, said Taiwan is a primary location for Google’s cloud technology. However, the company’s data center and offices still rely on fossil fuels, which generate nearly 85% of its energy.

“The purpose of this investment is actually to support the construction of a large-scale solar pipeline in Taiwan,” Corio added.

Corio also noted that Google plans to not only use purchased solar power in its facilities but also share some of it with its Taiwanese suppliers and manufacturers. This approach will address Google’s “scope 3 emissions” problem, she explained.


These emissions result indirectly from the company’s value chain, including emissions generated by suppliers during production. By providing them with clean energy, Google can indirectly reduce its overall impact on the environment.

Decarbonization efforts face greater challenges in regions such as Asia and the Pacific. This is due to two main factors – less developed infrastructure for renewable energy and restrictions that prevent companies from purchasing green energy directly. These restrictions may be due to regulatory restrictions or the lack of established mechanisms for such transactions.


What BlackRock said about its partnership with Google

Google has partnered with BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure fund, but the report did not reveal the size of its stake in Taiwan’s leading solar developer, New Green Power. This investment will fuel the development of the ambitious 1 GW New Green Power solar project. This is also in line with Taiwan’s ambitious renewable energy goals of achieving 20 GW of solar capacity by 2025 and a staggering 80 GW by 2050.