Amazon today revealed details of four new clean power projects that will support its plans to transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030. Located across three continents, the sites in Australia, Spain, Sweden, and the US will generate 840,000 MWh annually, equivalent to 76,000 average American homes every year.
“We’re on a mission to meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early as part of The Climate Pledge commitment to be net zero carbon across our operations by 2040. These new renewable energy projects are part of our roadmap to 80% renewable energy by 2024 and 100% renewable energy by 2030,” said Kara Hurst, Vice President of Sustainability, Amazon. “In addition to the environmental benefits inherently associated with running applications in the cloud, investing in renewable energy is a critical step toward addressing our carbon footprint globally.”
Amazon currently has 86 similar projects around the world delivering energy in excess of 6.3 million MWh annually.
The tech giant’s work in this area mirrors the progress corporations are making worldwide. A recent report by BloombergNEF (BNEF) revealed corporations worldwide are buying record-levels of renewable energy. The research showed that last year there was a steep rise in renewable energy buying by big business, up 40% on the year before, through what are called power purchase agreements, or PPAs. The BNEF study: 1H 2020 Corporate Energy Market Outlook highlighted that 19.5GW of clean energy contracts were agreed in 2019, by over 100 corporations in 23 countries, which equates to more than 10% of all the renewable energy capacity added last year. These projects will cost between $20 billion and $30 billion.
One initiative putting corporations centre stage in the energy transition is RE100, led by The Climate Group, where brands pledge to shift to a future powered by 100% renewable energy. It has nearly 230 signatories.
