The investments include the company's first ever renewable project in Finland
An Amazon fulfilment centre in the US. (Credit: Michael Rivera/Wikipedia.org)
Amazon has announced 14 new renewable energy projects across Canada, the US, Finland, and Spain in an effort to reach its goal of fully powering its operations with clean energy by 2025.
Originally, the tech major had a target of achieving 100% renewable energy-powered operations by 2030.
Among the new projects announced by the company include a 375MW solar farm in Canada and a 152MW solar power project in Spain.
Amazon said that the new projects will take its total renewable energy investments to date to 10GW, which is equivalent to meeting the electricity requirements of 2.5 million US households.
The company claims to have become the largest corporate buyer of renewable power in the US and the world. It will have a total of 232 renewable power projects globally.
Power generated by the newly announced utility-scale solar and wind projects will provide electricity to the company’s corporate offices, Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres, and its retail fulfilment centres.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said: “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.
“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.”
In the US, the company will invest in 11 renewable energy projects, which include its first solar plants in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi. The company also announced additional projects in the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.
Overall, the company is said to have facilitated more than 6GW of renewable energy in the country through 54 projects.
In Canada, the 375MW solar farm will be the tech giant’s second renewable energy project in Alberta. Slated to begin operations next year, the solar farm will expand the company’s capacity in Canada to over one million megawatt hours (MWh), which is enough to power over 100,000 homes.
In Finland, the company announced its first ever renewable project in the form of a 52MW wind farm. To be built along the Finnish west coast, the wind farm is scheduled to begin operations in 2022.
On the other hand, the 152MW solar power plant in Spain will be Amazon’s fifth solar project in the country. Expected to begin operations in 2023, the solar farm expands the company’s total capacity in Spain to over 520MW.
In April 2021, the company had announced nine new renewable energy projects in Canada, the US, Sweden, Spain, and the UK.