Google Partners with Blackrock, Invests in Taiwan Solar Pipeline

Google has partnered with Blackrock’s Climate Infrastructure business to support the development of a one-gigawatt (GW) pipeline of new solar capacity in Taiwan.

As part of the partnership, Google said in a statement that it is making a capital investment in New Green Power (NGP), a Taiwanese solar developer and BlackRock portfolio company, to facilitate the buildout of its large-scale solar pipeline.

Google said its investment in NGP, which is 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. The company expects to procure up to 300 megawatts (MW) of solar energy from the 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 its data center campus, cloud region, and office operations in Taiwan.

The move helps the technology giant meet its goal of reaching net-zero emissions across all its operations and value chain by 2030, as well as another goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where it operates.

Google noted that Taiwan derives almost 85 percent of its electricity from imported coal and natural gas, as many countries in Asia Pacific face challenges of land constraints, low availability of commercially scalable wind and solar resources, and high construction costs. The company said that, in order to reach its goals, its plans include “creating new clean energy opportunities in regions that are early in their decarbonization journeys and have electricity grids that are undersupplied with carbon-free energy”.

Google stated that it could also offer a portion of this clean energy capacity to its semiconductor suppliers and manufacturers in the region so they can advance their own sustainability goals while helping us reduce our Scope 3 emissions, or indirect emissions from its value chain.

The partnership with Blackrock builds on more than five years of collaboration to accelerate the clean energy transition through market and policy development across Asia Pacific, Google said. The company claims its advocacy and engagement efforts were a key driver of the 2017 amendment of Taiwan’s Electricity Act, which opened up the market to allow non-utility companies to directly purchase renewable energy, and led to it becoming the first corporate buyer to sign a PPA in the market. Since then, Taiwan has achieved significant cumulative contracted capacity through corporate PPAs, becoming one of the leading corporate PPA markets in the Asia-Pacific region, according to the statement.

BlackRock’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”.

On the emissions monitoring front, Google in February partnered with the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) for MethaneSAT, a satellite that can map, measure, and track methane globally.

MethaneSAT has the ability to monitor both high-emitting methane sources and small sources spread over a wide area, according to the release. It is designed to measure regions at intervals under seven days, regularly monitoring roughly 50 major regions accounting for more than 80 percent of global oil and gas production, according to an earlier news release.

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