Amazon has recently announced that in 2022 it grew its renewable energy capacity by 8.3 GW through 133 new projects in 11 countries. This brings Amazon’s total portfolio to more than 20 GW—that could generate the amount of energy to power 5.3 million U.S. homes—across 401 renewable energy projects in 22 countries. The company’s renewable energy purchases continue to add new wind and solar projects on the grids that power Amazon’s operations, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres, Amazon fulfilment centres, and physical stores around the world.
With these continued investments, reportedly, Amazon set a new corporate record for the most renewable energy announced by a single company in one year. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, the company remains the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy—a position it’s held since 2020. Furthermore, these purchases also bring Amazon closer to powering its operations with 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of its original 2030 target.
In 2022, the company announced new projects in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Spain, and the US, and broke ground in Brazil, India, and Indonesia. With 25 new renewable energy projects secured to close out the year, the company now has 401 projects globally, including 164 wind farms and solar farms, and 237 rooftop solar projects on Amazon facilities. Once operational, Amazon’s global renewable energy projects are expected to generate 56,881 GWh of clean energy each year.
In addition to the 108 clean energy projects the company announced in 2022, Amazon is announcing 25 additional 2022 clean energy projects. These include the eleven new projects in Europe including Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK, totaling 372 MW of capacity, with four new projects in North America, totaling 918 MW of energy in Arizona, California, and Texas and ten new renewable energy projects in India, Indonesia, and Japan.
In India, a third 200 MW wind-solar hybrid project was added to Amazon’s first two wind-solar hybrid projects. In Indonesia, Amazon invested in its first renewable energy projects, securing a first-of its-kind agreement for corporations to access additional, utility-scale solar projects. In Japan, Amazon added three on-site solar projects and a new 38 MW utility-scale solar project.
REGlobal’s Views: Large tech corporations like Amazon, which consume massive energy to power their data centers, are now accelerating their energy transition plans and rapidly switching to renewable energy sources. While this helps them reach their decarbonisation targets, renewable energy is also more affordable than fossil fuel based power in many areas of the world and also provides greater energy security.
