Will Google & BlackRock Deal Boost APAC Energy Transition?
Google aims to decarbonise its Taiwan-based operations and help the nation and APAC region speed up their clean energy transition after announcing a partnership with BlackRock.
At the heart of the partnership, a capital investment will be made in New Green Power (NGP), a Taiwanese solar developer and BlackRock portfolio company, to enable the buildout of its large-scale solar pipeline.
Amanda Peterson Corio, Global Head of Data Centre Energy, Google, said: “As we work to put even more clean electricity into Taiwan’s grid, we are announcing a new capital investment in Taiwan solar developer New Green Power through a unique Google partnership with BlackRock.
“This investment will support a 1GW pipeline of solar development in Taiwan.”
Amanda added: “What’s more, as part of our partnership, Google may offer a portion of this solar resource to our semiconductor manufacturers and suppliers in Taiwan as well as procure directly to supply our local data centre with new solar energy.”
Six years of hard work
Six years ago, Amanda and Google campaigned successfully for the opening up of the Taiwanese electricity market to corporate end-users.
The amendments to its electricity act has since paved the way for 3.5GW of power purchase agreements in Taiwan – setting an example to other markets.
Amanda said: “This is just another example of how we are focusing on collaboration across the industry and around the world to innovate models for development to decarbonise our electric grids.”
She added: “We have a bold goal to reach net-zero emissions across all our operations and value chain by 2030, supported by a goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where we operate.
“The path to reach these goals is challenging and requires both commercial efforts and broader energy systems change.”
Catalysing solar energy
Amanda explained that many countries in Asia Pacific 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.
She said: “Therefore, fossil fuels, including imported coal and natural gas, generate nearly 85% of Taiwan's electricity.
“To help overcome these obstacles, companies can play a pivotal role in finding new strategies to grow the supply of available renewable energy sources and promoting emerging technologies that enable the full decarbonisation of regional electricity systems.”
The investment in NGP will provide development capital toward its 1GW pipeline of new solar projects and catalyse equity and debt financing for the projects.
Amanda said: “We expect to procure up to 300MW of solar energy from this pipeline through PPAs and the associated energy attribute certificates to help meet electricity demand from our data centre campus, cloud region and office operations in Taiwan.”
Unlocking decarbonisation across APAC
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.”
And Kate Brandt, Google CSO, said: “This investment will help Google decarbonise our operations and value chain in Taiwan, while paving the way for new partnership models that can accelerate the clean energy transition globally.”
The partnership builds on more than five years of collaboration to accelerate the clean energy transition through market and policy development across Asia Pacific.
Along with the work to amend Taiwan’s electricity act, Google’s efforts to hit its 2030 carbon-free energy goal are happening across Asia Pacific, with recent announcements in Australia and Japan.
Amanda said: “In parallel, we’re working with partners to support policies that accelerate the decarbonisation of electricity grids.
“We’re a founding member of the Asia Clean Energy Coalition (ACEC), which brings together energy buyers, suppliers and policymakers to help improve the policy and regulatory environment for corporate renewable electricity purchasing.”
She added: “Coalitions like ACEC are essential to drive the system-level transformation required for a carbon-free future in Asia Pacific.”
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