Amazon Continues Investments in Renewable Energy

Amazon has announced the company’s 65th and 66th renewable energy projects. Amazon’s newest renewable energy project will be located in Cork and will be the second Amazon Wind Farm in the Republic of Ireland. Once complete, the new Amazon Wind Farm will provide 23.2 megawatts (MW) of renewable capacity, with an expected generation of 68,000-megawatt-hours (MWh) of clean energy annually.

Amazon’s newest renewable energy project in the U.S. will be located in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, and will be the seventh Amazon Solar Farm in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Once complete, the new Amazon Solar Farm will provide 45 megawatts (MW) of renewable capacity and is expected to generate 100,000-megawatt-hours (MWh) of clean energy annually. Both projects are expected to begin producing clean energy in 2020 and will supply clean energy to the company’s Amazon Web Services data centres, which power Amazon and millions of AWS customers globally.

Additionally, Amazon’s investments in renewable energy were recently recognized in the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) 2018 Solar Means Business Report, which ranked Amazon #1 in the U.S. for the amount of corporate on-site solar installed in 2018, and #2 for the total amount of solar installed to date. Amazon’s solar projects in the U.S. have offset the CO2 equivalent of more than 200 million miles of truck deliveries. Globally, Amazon has 66 renewable energy projects – including 51 solar rooftops – that are expected to generate 1,342 MW of renewable capacity and deliver more than 3.9 million MWh of clean energy annually.

“Playing a significant role in helping to reduce the sources of human-induced climate change is an important commitment for Amazon,” said Kara Hurst, Director of Sustainability, Amazon. “Major investments in renewable energy are a critical step to address our carbon footprint globally. We will continue to invest in these projects, and look forward to additional investments this year and beyond.”

Make Ireland a Leader in the Renewable Energy Space

“Under the Climate Action Plan, we are committing that 70 per cent of Ireland’s electricity will come from renewable sources by 2030. Industry leadership is key to helping us reach this target,” said Richard Bruton, Ireland’s Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment. “This project is another example of AWS’s commitment to renewable projects in Ireland, adding clean energy to the grid, and supporting Ireland’s climate commitments. Construction will begin on this project this year and will start contributing to Ireland’s renewable energy capacity by 2020. We look forward to continuing to work with AWS as we strive to make Ireland a leader in the renewable energy space.”

Beyond investments in wind and solar, Amazon has a long history of commitment to sustainability through innovative programs such as Shipment Zero, Frustration-Free Packaging, Ships in Own Container, investments in the circular economy with the Closed Loop Fund, and numerous other initiatives happening every day by teams across Amazon. Amazon has also implemented the District Energy Project that uses recycled energy to heat and cool more than 3 million square feet of office space. For more information on Amazon’s sustainability initiatives, visit www.amazon.com/sustainability.