Google has purchased a stake in New Green Power (NGP), a Taiwanese solar power company owned by a BlackRock fund, aiming to procure up to 300MW of renewable energy.

New Green Power, which is supported by BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure fund, is a major solar developer and operator in Taiwan.

The deal is part of Google’s strategy to operate on carbon-free energy worldwide and slash its carbon emissions across its operations and supply chains.

The tech giant’s move reflects the broader trend of major companies setting ambitious environmental targets in response to growing investor pressure to address climate change.

In Taiwan, where Google maintains substantial cloud infrastructure, the reliance on fossil fuels for power generation stands at 85%.

Google global head of data centre energy Amanda Peterson Corio stated: “The goal of this investment is really to support the build-out of a large-scale solar pipeline in Taiwan.”

Google and BlackRock did not reveal the specific size of their equity stake, but Corio suggested that the investment would accelerate financing for NGP’s 1GW solar energy pipeline.

Taiwan has set ambitious solar energy targets, aiming to reach 20GW by 2025 and up to 80GW by 2050. Google’s partnership with NGP is poised to contribute significantly to these objectives.

Apart from using the purchased solar power for its own operations, Google intends to distribute a portion of the energy to its suppliers and manufacturers in Taiwan.

This approach will reduce Google’s Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions associated with its value chain) by enabling suppliers to utilise renewable energy sources.