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Google to take equity stake in New Green Power

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Has rights to buy up to 300 megawatts of power

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Could also be used to help green local suppliers

By Simon Jessop and Susanna Twidale

LONDON, July 1 (Reuters) - Google said it has

taken a stake in Taiwan's New Green Power and could buy up to

300 megawatts of renewable energy from the BlackRock ( BLK )

fund-owned firm to help cut its carbon emissions and those of

suppliers.

Companies are being pushed to cut greenhouse gas emissions

linked to their operations and value chains by investors and Big

Tech firms have been among the most ambitious in their targets.

Google aims to constantly run on carbon-free energy wherever

it operates. Yet sector growth in demand for data-processing

capacity to power artificial intelligence has seen emissions

jump.

Taiwan, a major site for Google's cloud technology with a

data centre and company offices, still relied on fossil fuels to

generate nearly 85% of its power, Amanda Peterson Corio,

Google's Global Head of Data Center Energy told Reuters.

"The goal of this investment is really to support the build

out of a large-scale solar pipeline in Taiwan," Corio added.

Regions such as Asia Pacific can be harder to decarbonise

due to less developed infrastructure and restrictions limiting

the ability of corporate users to buy green power.

New Green Power, owned by a fund managed by BlackRock's ( BLK )

Climate Infrastructure business, was one of the leading solar

developers and operators in Taiwan, BlackRock's ( BLK ) Global Head of

Climate Infrastructure David Giordano told Reuters.

Google and BlackRock ( BLK ) both declined to specify the size of

the equity stake being taken in NGP, but Corio said the

investment was expected to drive the equity and debt financing

for the build-out of its 1 gigawatt (GW) pipeline.

Taiwan is targeting 20 GW of solar capacity by 2025 and up

to 80 GW by 2050, BlackRock ( BLK ) said.

Corio said that as well as using some of the solar power it

buys to drive its own operations, Google would also be able to

offer some to its suppliers and manufacturers in the region.

Sharing with suppliers would help Google lower its so-called

Scope 3 emissions, those tied to its value chain, she added.

(Editing by Alexander Smith)