Amazon Inc has announced 18 new wind and solar energy projects across the U.S., Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K. The total capacity across all locations totals up to 5.6 gigawatts (GW) to date in 2021.
Amazon with these new announcements has 274 renewable projects globally. They are on the path to power 100 per cent of their business operations with renewable energy by 2025. This is 5 years earlier than their original commitment of 2030.
When the projects are commissioned and are fully operational, they can produce a capacity of 12GW and 33,700-gigawatt hours (GWh). This amount of power can sustain more than 3 million homes in the U.S. for 1 year.
The power generated from these sources will be used for Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfilment centres and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres. The projects will also help meet the commitment to producing clean energy equivalent to the electricity used by all consumer Echo devices. The amount of clean energy produced by these projects will avoid the equivalent of the annual emissions of nearly 3 million cars in the U.S. each year, or about 13.7 million metric tons.
“Significant investments in renewable energy globally are an important step in delivering on The Climate Pledge, our commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement,” said Kara Hurst, vice president of worldwide sustainability at Amazon.
In total, Amazon has enabled more than 3.5 GW of renewable energy in Europe through 34 projects. It makes it the largest procurer of renewable energy in Europe.
Reference: greentechlead.com