Tuesday 2 July 2024

Google Partners With BlackRock On Taiwanese Solar Energy

Google announced it has partnered with BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure business to develop “a 1 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of new solar capacity in Taiwan.”

According to Google, 85% of Taiwan’s electricity is generated with fossil fuels. To make matters worse, some of is imported, making the island reliant on imports. As part of Google’s commitment to reach net-zero emissions by 2030, throughout its operations and value chain, the company is investing in BlackRock’s New Green Power (NGP) to help it build out a large-scale solar pipeline.

Our investment in NGP, subject to regulatory approval, will serve as development capital toward its 1 GW pipeline of new solar projects, catalyzing critical equity and debt financing for those projects. We expect to procure up to 300 MW of solar energy from this pipeline through power purchase agreements (PPAs) and the 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 a portion of the clean energy produced to its suppliers and manufacturers.

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

Google touted its efforts to accelerate the clean energy adoption in the Asia Pacific region, saying it was the first coporate buyer to sign a PPA in that market.

“As we witness growth in demand for digital services, powered by AI and data-centric technologies, it becomes imperative to invest in clean energy,” said BlackRock’s Global Head of Climate Infrastructure David Giordano. “The partnership is a testament to the shared commitment between Google and BlackRock to driving the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

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



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