Since Google signed the first corporate power agreement (PPA) for Solar Energy in Taiwan in 2019, we have worked to accelerate the development of pure energy and meet electricity demand from our local data centers and offices.
Today we advertise another milestone by signing the first company’s PPAs for geothermal energy in Taiwan and our first in the region. The initial projects – developed by the global geothermal developer Baseload Capital – adds 10 Megawatt (MW) of “Always On” power to the web and helps catalyze Taiwan’s geothermal market. Based on our recent partnership in support of a 1 gigawatt (GW) pipeline of sun development in Taiwan, these geothermal PPAs reflect our commitment to promoting a package of energy solutions to support our local data center and operations with pure electricity while opening roads to scale geothermal development throughout Asia-Square and globally.
Addressing local challenges to 24/7 clean energy
Geothermal, tapping into underground heat to generate pure electricity, is a “around the clock” energy source with significant potential for places like Taiwan. With its unique geological position along the Pacific Ring of Fire, Taiwan has access to significant geothermal resources that offer stable and reliable baseleting power to supplement variable energy technologies such as sun and wind.
This long -term partnership with Baseload Capital, which includes a capital investment in the company, represents our latest step to accelerate the implementation of geothermal as a 24/7 pure energy technology throughout Asia and the Pacific and globally. We are working on developing and commercializing the next generation of geothermal technologies through our improved geothermal project with Ferry Energy and to reveal the potential for geothermal all over the world with our underground data partnership with Project Interspace. In the Asia-Stophav region, we also work together to promote new research into the development of geothermal energy in Australia.
Catalyzes unused geothermal markets
Since 2019, Baseload Capital’s subsidiary, Baseload Power Taiwan, has actively implemented local geothermal resource exploration that is closely with local communities and cooperated with the Taiwanese government to improve regulatory and permitted framework for geothermal energy. Google’s support for these geothermal projects will help build the local workforce and expertise, supply chain and infrastructure to unlock lower costs and faster implementation of future projects.
These projects will also contribute to Taiwan’s goal of installing 6 GW geothermal capacity by 2050.
We are also excited about the potential to repeat these first projects in markets throughout the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan and Indonesia, as well as other places where we have electricity demand globally. This partnership is an important milestone in Google’s pure energy journey and in our efforts to bring the benefits of reliable, pure power to every region where we operate.