Google, the flagship subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. (GOOG), has struck a partnership with New Green Power, a Taiwanese solar outfit, to increase its energy harvest for artificial intelligence (AI) while underpinning a green agenda in powering its data centres.
Google Elevates Its Energy Capacity With New Green Power Partnership
CNBC indicated that the tech giant will partner with BlackRock, Inc. (BLK), which backs New Green Power, to establish a one-gigawatt pipeline of new solar capacity in Taiwan. Based on media reports, Google will invest capital for a stake in the venture and “to facilitate the buildout of its large-scale solar pipeline”.
Google did not divulge just how much it is investing. This agreement still needs to go through the Taiwanese regulatory channels for approval.
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The partnership will have dual benefits. It will boost green energy in Taiwan and help Google achieve net zero by 2030. Apart from helping to run its data centres, the company stated that a portion of this newly generated clean energy will go towards Google’s microchip alliances in this country. The firm’s global head of data centre energy, Amanda Peterson, added:
We expect to procure up to 300 [megawatts] of solar energy from this 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 our data center campus, cloud region and office operations in Taiwan.
According to CNBC, approximately 60% of all microchips come from Taiwan. Semiconductor producers are high-level energy consumers. David Giordano, the global head of climate infrastructure at BlackRock, 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.
