Google on Monday said it is planning to invest in New Green Power Co (NGP, 永鑫能源), a solar energy developer owned by BlackRock Inc, to build 1 gigawatt of solar capacity in Taiwan to supply clean energy for its local data center and offices.
“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,” Google’s Data Center Energy global head Amanda Peterson Corio wrote on a company blog.
It did not disclose financial details.
Photo: Chang Hui-wen, Taipei Times
“We expect to procure up to 300 megawatts of solar energy from this pipeline through power purchase agreements 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,” Corio wrote.
Google has been operating a US$600 million data center in Changhua County since 2013.
The company might take a step further by offering a portion of this clean energy capacity to its semiconductor and manufacturing partners in the region so they can advance their sustainability goals while helping Google reduce its Scope 3 emissions, the indirect emissions from its value chain, Corio wrote.
“As we witness growth in demand for digital services, powered by artificial intelligence and data center technologies, it becomes imperative to invest in clean energy,” BlackRock global head of climate infrastructure David Giordano said on the Google blog.
Google’s new solar investment has helped boost the share prices of the nation’s major solar module manufacturers amid expectations that the large-scale clean energy project would stimulate solar module demand locally given Taiwan’s complete solar energy supply chain.
Google’s plan to build 1 gigawatt of solar energy is equal to 40 percent of the nation’s solar energy installation totaling 2.5 gigawatts last year.
The stock prices of Motech Industries Inc (茂迪), TSEC Corp (元晶) and United Renewable Energy Co (聯合再生) yesterday rallied 9.95 percent, 10 percent and 9.81 percent to close at NT$34.25, NT$31.35 and NT$14.55 respectively.
Google’s latest solar energy project could help alleviate the tight supply of green energy in Taiwan.
To address that issue, the Taiwan Photovoltaic Industry Association (台灣太陽光電產業協會) said it has proposed to the nation’s major power users, mostly technology companies, to build their clean energy capacity and most of them agreed.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves hit a record high at the end of last month, surpassing the US$600 billion mark for the first time, the central bank said yesterday. Last month, the country’s foreign exchange reserves rose US$5.51 billion from a month earlier to reach US$602.94 billion due to an increase in returns from the central bank’s portfolio management, the movement of other foreign currencies in the portfolio against the US dollar and the bank’s efforts to smooth the volatility of the New Taiwan dollar. Department of Foreign Exchange Director-General Eugene Tsai (蔡炯民)said a rate cut cycle launched by the US Federal Reserve
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