Amazon has announced 18 new utility-scale wind and solar energy projects in the United States, Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom, totaling 5.6 GW of capacity procured as of 2021. Amazon, currently has 274 renewable energy projects throughout the world and plans to use renewable energy to power 100 per cent of its commercial operations by 2025, five years ahead of its original 2030 target. When fully operational, these new utility-scale wind and solar projects will raise Amazon’s total committed renewable electricity production capacity to more than 12 GW and 33,700 GWh, or enough electricity to power more than 3 million US homes for a year.
The projects are expected to provide renewable energy to Amazon’s corporate headquarters, fulfilment centres, and Amazon Web Services data centres, which serve millions of customers around the world. The projects will also assist Amazon in meeting its goal of producing enough clean energy to power all customer Echo devices. These projects will provide enough renewable energy to avoid the annual emissions of roughly 3 million cars in the United States, or around 13.7 million metric tonnes.
In September 2021, Amazon signed a long-term corporate power purchase agreement (corporate PPA) with Mitsubishi Corporation (MC), marking Amazon’s first use of renewable energy in Japan. This corporate PPA has been facilitated by MC Retail Energy Co., Ltd., under which it will provide electricity to Amazon subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS), Inc.’s data centres.
REGlobal’s Views: Large corporates especially technology giants are increasingly shifting to renewables as part of their strategy to incorporate more sustainable practices and have been sourcing massive volumes of green energy through onsite solar establishments, corporate PPAs and even green credits to meet the power requirements of their highly energy intensive data centers.
