Google Purchase Stake In Solar Power Company In Taiwan

Google has purchased a stake in Taiwanese solar power firm New Green Power (NGP). The cloud giant, having acquired the stake, will be able to set up to 300MW power via power purchase agreements (PPAs). 

Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of data center energy, said, that the company’s operations in Taiwan still relied on fossil fuels for nearly 85 percent of its power.  NGP is owned by a fund managed by BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure business. Neither BlackRock nor Google have stated the size of Google’s stake, but Corio said the capital associated with it would be able to drive the equity and debt financing for the build-out of NGP’s 1GW pipeline.

When operational, Google will use solar power for its operations as well as offering some to its suppliers and manufacturers in the region. Taiwan is targeting 20GW of solar capacity by 2025 and up to 80GW by 2050, according to BlackRock. The company’s global head of climate infrastructure David Giordano said: “As we witness growth in demand for digital services, powered by AI and data-centric technologies, it becomes imperative to invest in clean energy. The partnership is a testament to the shared commitment between Google and BlackRock to driving the transition to a low-carbon economy.”

Google acquired 15 hectares of land in Taiwan’s Changhua County in 2011. The company launched its first data center there in late 2013 and its GCP region there the following year. In 2019, the search and cloud company said it would build a second site further south in Tainan.

Google aims to reach net-zero emissions across all of its operations and value chain by 2030, to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy wherever it operates and is a major purchaser of PPAs (power purchase agreements) globally.

In a blog post, Corio wrote that Asia Pacific countries face “unique challenges with adding new carbon-free energy”, including land constraints, low availability of commercially scalable wind and solar resources, and high construction costs.

2024 has so far seen Google sign PPAs in Japan, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Poland, and Arizona. The company has also announced investments into carbon capture and put out an RFP for innovative energy generation technologies. Throughout 2023, Google procured 1.5GW of clean energy.

Google is also moving to 24/7 PPAs, which ensure all actual energy use is matched by renewable energy in real-time. The cloud giant also uses a time-based energy-matching platform from Flexidao to help ensure the energy it uses is backed by the green energy it has paid to produce.

BlackRock has many digital infrastructure investments. In June 2024, the company acquired a majority stake in German data center firm Mainova WebHouse. After acquiring Global Infrastructure Partners earlier this year, the company took over major stakes in CyrusOne and Vantage Towers (and has provided Vantage Data Centers with loans). BlackRock has also invested in GPU cloud firm CoreWeave and tower firm Phoenix Tower and has partnered with AT&T on fiber projects.