Google partners with BlackRock on Taiwanese solar power

Google announced a partnership with BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure division to develop “a new 1 gigawatt (GW) solar network in Taiwan.”

According to Google, 85% of Taiwan’s electricity is generated from fossil fuels. Worse still, some of it is imported, making the island dependent on imports. As part of Google’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030, the company is investing in BlackRock’s New Green Power (NGP) to help it build a large-scale solar facility.

Our investment in NGP, subject to regulatory approval, will serve as growth capital toward a 1 GW pipeline of new solar projects, catalyzing key equity and debt financing for these projects. We expect to acquire up to 300 MW of solar power from this pipeline through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and associated Energy Attribute Certificates (Taiwan Renewable Energy Certificates or T-RECs) to help meet electricity demand from our data center campus, cloud region and office operations in Taiwan.

Google says it may offer its suppliers and manufacturers a portion of the clean energy it produces.

Taking it a step further, we can offer some of this clean energy to our suppliers and semiconductor manufacturers in the region so they can meet their own sustainability goals while helping us reduce our scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions from our value chain). A significant portion of our scope 3 footprint can be traced back to the electricity grids that power our suppliers and users, so broad decarbonization—and partnerships like this—continue to underpin our net zero goal.

Google has boasted about its efforts to accelerate clean energy adoption in the Asia-Pacific region, saying it was the first corporate buyer to sign a PPA in the market.

“As demand for digital services grows, driven by AI and data-centric technologies, investing in clean energy becomes imperative,” said David Giordano, global head of climate infrastructure at BlackRock. “This partnership demonstrates Google and BlackRock’s shared commitment to driving the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Energy demand is a growing concern for the tech industry, especially with the rise of AI and the dramatic increase in energy consumption that comes with it. Given Google’s position in the tech industry as one of the leading AI companies, it’s no surprise that the company wants to increase its investment in green energy.