Taipei, April 8 (CNA) U.S. high-tech giant Google Inc. announced Friday that it has launched renewable energy certification initiatives across Asia and chosen Taiwan as a starting point to provide seed funding for clean energy development.

Google has provided seed funding to its Center for Resource Solutions (CRS) in a bid to provide all of its data centers around the world with renewable energy, a commitment the company has made to ensure a green environment on the planet.

The Internet search engine operator said that clean energy development in Asia now faces some challenges and one of the greatest difficulties is that the region is lacking a comprehensive renewable energy certification program. Therefore, it has decided to push for renewable energy certificate (REC) initiatives in the region.

As part of its REC initiatives in Asia, Google has begun the drive in Taiwan, where more and more enterprises have showed their support for purchasing renewable energy to meet an increase in electricity consumption.

According to Google, its data center in Taiwan is gearing up to seek purchases of renewable energy in the country and that was the reason why its REC program in Asia has chosen Taiwan as the starting point in the region.

Google invested US$600 million to set up a data center in the Changhua Coastal Industrial Park (彰濱工業區), central Taiwan, in 2013. Google is now planning to invest even more in the Taiwan data center.

However, Google did not disclose the amount of the funding it is dedicating to its REC initiative in Taiwan.

Google said that it has set a goal to provide clean energy purchased under its REC initiatives in Asia to its data centers not only in Taiwan but also in Singapore.

Google added that users of its services such as the Google search engine, Gmail and YouTube are expected to enjoy better services through increased electricity supply, while Google is expected to be able to tilt toward a balance between industrial development and a green environment.

In December, Google announced that it was expanding its clean-power portfolio with deals to buy 781 megawatts of renewable energy from power plants located in the United States, Chile and Sweden.

Through many years of purchases under green energy contracts, Google has bought more than two gigawatts of renewable energy worldwide to make itself the largest non-utility renewable energy buyer in the world.

Google said that its REC initiatives are expected to help the company boost efficiency by avoiding the price volatility of traditional energy, while reaching its goal of protecting the environment. 

(By Jeffery Wu and Frances Huang)
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