KUALA LUMPUR: Alphabet Inc’s Google has signed a solar power agreement in Malaysia, as the tech giant looks to secure clean electricity for its operations globally.
Google will buy power from a 30MW solar farm developed by a consortium led by a local unit of Japan’s Shizen Energy Inc in Malaysia’s Kedah state, according to people familiar with the matter.
The project is part of the South-East Asian nation’s push to provide green power to companies and is expected to start operations in 2027, they said.
The agreement highlights efforts by global tech firms to decarbonise their energy-intensive operations such as data centres. But parts of Asia, where the likes of Google, Microsoft Corp and Amazon.com Inc have a large presence, remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
A Google official said earlier this year the firm sees the region as one of the “most challenging parts of the world” to decarbonise its operations. A spokesperson for Google was not immediately available to comment. A spokesperson for Shizen Energy declined to comment.
Malaysia aims to have 70% of its installed power capacity be renewables by 2050, from about 26% last year, according to BloombergNEF. The country has taken steps to attract investment accordingly, like the Corporate Green Power Programme, under which the Google-Shizen was signed.
Long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) like the one between Google and Shizen have become a key tool for these companies to achieve their emissions goals, providing financial guarantees in a region that can often have an uncertain regulatory landscape.
The Malaysia project is Shizen’s latest clean power agreement with a tech firm.
The company signed a batch of renewable energy deals in Japan with Microsoft in October, and had in the past signed a PPA with Google for its data centre in Chiba prefecture. — Bloomberg
