Google has acquired a stake in a solar power firm in Taiwan owned by BlackRock.

The acquisition grants Google rights to up to 300MW of power through power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the company, according to Reuters.

Amanda Peterson Corio, Google’s global head of data center energy, stated to Reuters that despite nearly 85% of its power in Taiwan coming from fossil fuels, this investment aims to support the development of a large-scale solar project pipeline in the region.

The solar firm, New Green Power (NGP), is managed by BlackRock’s Climate Infrastructure business. While specifics of Google’s stake size were not disclosed by either BlackRock or Google, Corio mentioned that the associated capital would facilitate both equity and debt financing for NGP’s 1GW pipeline.

Once operational, Google plans to utilize solar power for its own operations and may offer some to its suppliers and manufacturers in the area.

Taiwan has set a target of achieving 20GW of solar capacity by 2025 and up to 80GW by 2050.

Google has been present in Taiwan since acquiring 15 hectares of land in Changhua County in 2011. Its first data center in Taiwan was launched in late 2013, followed by its GCP region in 2014. In 2019, Google announced plans for a second site in Tainan.

Google aims to achieve net-zero emissions across its operations and value chain by 2030, operating on 24/7 carbon-free energy wherever possible. The company is a significant buyer of PPAs globally and has procured 1.5 GW of clean energy throughout 2023.

In a blog post, Corio highlighted the challenges in Asia Pacific countries regarding adding new carbon-free energy, including land constraints, limited commercially scalable wind and solar resources, and high construction costs.

Google is also transitioning to 24/7 PPAs to ensure all energy use is matched by renewable sources in real-time, supported by a time-based energy-matching platform from Flexidao.