Google invests in a Taiwanese solar power company owned by this investment major

Google has invested in Taiwan's New Green Power, a BlackRock-owned solar company, to access renewable energy and reduce its carbon footprint. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, this move aligns with the growing pressure from investors on big tech companies to be more sustainable. While Google strives for carbon-free energy use globally, the increasing energy demands of the tech giant’s data centres for training artificial intelligence-based chatbots are a challenge.

In a statement to Reuters, Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's Global Head of Data Center Energy said that Taiwan is a major site for Google's cloud technology. However, the company’s data centre and offices still rely on fossil fuels to generate nearly 85% of its power.
"The goal of this investment is really to support the build-out of a large-scale solar pipeline in Taiwan," Corio added.
Corio also noted that Google is planning to not only use the procured solar energy for its facilities but also extend some of it to its Taiwanese suppliers and manufacturers. This approach will tackle Google's "Scope 3 emissions," she explained.

These emissions arise indirectly from a company's value chain, including those generated by suppliers during production. By providing them with clean energy, Google can indirectly reduce its overall environmental impact.
Decarbonisation efforts face steeper challenges in regions like the Asia Pacific. This is due to two main factors -- less developed infrastructure for renewable energy and limitations that prevent companies from directly purchasing green power. These limitations could be caused due to regulatory restrictions or a lack of established mechanisms for such transactions.

Google has partnered with BlackRock's Climate Infrastructure fund, however, the report didn’t disclose the size of the stake in Taiwan's leading solar developer, New Green Power. This investment will fuel the development of New Green Power's ambitious 1 GW solar project pipeline. This also aligns with Taiwan's aggressive renewable energy goals of reaching 20 GW solar capacity by 2025 and a staggering 80 GW by 2050.