US technology firm Google has signed its first offshore wind power purchase agreement in the Asia Pacific region.
The company will purchase renewable energy from the Fengmiao 1 offshore wind project, developed by Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners. The wind farm is located 35 km off the coast of Taichung and has a capacity of 500MW.
The project is important to the country’s offshore wind sector as it is the first project from Taiwan’s Round 3.1 auction to achieve financial close.
Once operational in 2027, the project will provide reliable power to support Google’s data centre, cloud service, and offices in Taiwan.
The power from Fengmiao 1 will add to Google’s existing carbon-free energy portfolio in Taiwan. The tech giant already uses power from solar and geothermal sources. The US company has an ultimate goal of running on carbon-free energy full-time on every grid where they operate.
The Taiwanese government aims to install 5.7GW of offshore wind capacity by 2025. Fengmiao 1 will look to add capacity to the second stage of the government’s plan, which is adding another 15GW by 2035.
