Amazon on Monday announced nine new utility-scale wind and solar energy projects in the U.S., Canada, Spain, Sweden, and the UK, including an investment in a 350 MW offshore wind farm in Scotland.
"The company now has 206 renewable energy projects globally, including 71 utility-scale wind and solar projects and 135 solar rooftops on facilities and stores worldwide, which will generate 8.5 GW of electricity production capacity globally. With this latest announcement, Amazon is now the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Europe, with more than 2.5 GW of renewable energy capacity, enough to power more than two million European homes a year," Amazon said.,
These projects supply renewable energy to Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfillment centers, Whole Foods Market stores, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, which power Amazon and millions of AWS customers globally, Amazon said, adding that the projects also help Amazon meet its commitment to produce the clean energy equivalent to the electricity used by all consumer Echo devices.
"All of these projects put Amazon on a path to power 100% of its activities with renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of the original target of 2030. Investing in renewable energy is one of the many actions Amazon is taking as part of The Climate Pledge, a commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement," the company said,
As for the offshore wind investment mentioned, Amazon said it was the largest corporate renewable energy project in the UK.
"Amazon’s newest project in the UK is a 350 MW wind farm off the coast of Scotland and is Amazon’s largest in the country. It is also the largest corporate renewable energy deal announced by any company in the UK to date," the company said. It did not share further details on the wind farm apart form implying that it might be operational by 2024, as shared in the map below.
Credit: Amazon
Other projects include the company's first solar project paired with energy storage, based in California’s Imperial Valley, generating 100 megawatts (MW) of solar energy, which is enough to power over 28,000 homes for a year and includes 70 MW of energy storage; the company's first renewable energy investment in Canada—an 80 MW solar project in the County of Newell in Alberta; Amazon’s first renewable energy project in Oklahoma is a 118 MW wind project located in Murray County.,
Amazon is also building new solar projects in Ohio’s Allen, Auglaize, and Licking counties. Together, these Ohio projects will account for more than 400 MW of new energy procurement in the state, the company said.
Investments in Spain and Sweden: include solar projects are located in Extremadura and Andalucia, and together add more than 170 MW to the grid. Amazon’s newest project in Sweden is a 258 MW onshore wind project located in Northern Sweden.
“Amazon continues to scale up its investments in renewable energy as part of its effort to meet The Climate Pledge, our commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “With these nine new wind and solar projects, we have announced 206 renewable wind and solar projects worldwide, and we are now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Europe and globally. Many parts of our business are already operating on renewable energy, and we expect to power all of Amazon with renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original target of 2030.”
To remind, in December 2020 the e-commerce and cloud computing giant signed a 10-year corporate power purchase agreement with offshore wind firm Ørsted.
In what was described as Europe's largest-ever offshore wind power purchase deal, Amazon committed to offtake the output of 250MW from Ørsted's planned 900MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in Germany. Borkum Riffgrund 3 is expected to become operational in 2025
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