Aerial view of two Amazon fulfillment facilities with solar systems on their rooftops. (Photo credit: P2 Photography)
Amazon announced 14 new renewable energy projects in the U.S., Canada, Finland and Spain to advance its ambitious goal to power 100% of company activities with renewable energy by 2025 — five years ahead of the original target of 2030. The new projects bring Amazon’s total renewable energy investments to date to 10 GW of electricity production capacity — enough to power 2.5 million U.S. homes. Amazon is now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in the U.S. and the world.
The latest utility-scale solar and wind projects will supply renewable energy for Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfillment centers and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers that support millions of customers globally. These projects will also help Amazon meet its commitment to produce enough renewable energy to cover the electricity used by all Echo devices in use. These new projects support hundreds of jobs while providing hundreds of millions of dollars of investment in local communities.
“We’re driving hard to fulfill The Climate Pledge — our commitment to reach net-zero carbon by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Our investments in wind and solar energy in the U.S. and around the world send a signal that investing in green technologies is the right thing to do for the planet and citizens—as well as for the long-term success of businesses of all sizes across all industries everywhere.”
Amazon will now have a total of 232 renewable energy projects globally, including 85 utility-scale wind and solar projects and 147 solar rooftops on facilities and stores worldwide. The 14 new wind and solar projects in the U.S., Canada, Finland and Spain include:
- New projects across the U.S.: The 11 U.S.-based projects announced today include Amazon’s first solar projects in Arkansas, Mississippi and Pennsylvania, and additional projects in Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio. In total, Amazon has enabled more than 6 GW of renewable energy in the U.S. through 54 projects.
- Amazon’s largest renewable energy project in Canada: Amazon’s second renewable energy project in Alberta is a 375-MW solar farm—which is also the largest in the country. When it comes online in 2022, the solar farm will bring Amazon’s capacity in Canada to more than 1 million MWh, enough to power more than 100,000 Canadian homes.
- Amazon’s first renewable energy project in Finland: Amazon’s first project in Finland is a 52-MW wind farm located near the country’s west coast. The project is expected to begin producing energy in 2022.
- Additional investments in Spain: Amazon’s fifth solar project in Spain will generate 152 MW when it begins contributing power to the grid in 2023, bringing total capacity in the country to more than 520 MW.
“Amazon’s commitment to clean energy is highly commendable, and it is the type of investment that we need to see more of to meet the world’s critical energy and climate needs,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of SEIA. “It is becoming increasingly clear that corporations such as Amazon see solar and other renewable resources as the path forward to meet their energy and business needs, and we stand ready to support Amazon and other companies of all sizes in their decisions to go solar.”
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