Google will buy renewable energy for its expanding data centers in Taiwan, and support government programs to support renewables, according to reports.

The search giant announced in 2015 it would be expanding its data center in central Taiwan; it had been expected that it would build its own power plant, but it is now going to buy renewable energy from other sources, according to a report in Digitimes. which quoted  the company’s director of operations, data center energy and location strategy, Gary Demasi.

Promoting renewables

As well as buying renewable energy, Google wants to help the Taiwan government set up a renewable energy certification system, which would promote the use of renewable energy. 

There are currently no renewable energy certification systems in the Asia Pacific region, so private companies are not able to sell renewable energy to customers and the market for renewable energy is hobbled by confusion and doubt. 

In April, Google invested in the Center for Resource Solutions, a nonprofit body which aims to promote renewable energy certification in Asia, starting with Taiwan. 

Such a certification system would require the Taiwan government to amend its Electricity Act so enterprises can purchase renewable power from private companies.

Google is the world’s largest consumer of renewable energy, with contracts for 2GW of power from multiple purchase agreements, 781MW of which were signed in one go, late in 2015.

In the US, Google, along with Microsoft, Facebook and Amazon, helped create a buyers club called the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance to promote the use of renewable energy in the United States.