Amazon Launches New Wind & Solar Projects, Becomes Europe’s Largest Corporate Renewables Buyer
Amazon announced a series of utility-scale wind and solar energy projects in several countries around the world, bringing the company a step closer to its goal to power 100% of its activities with renewable energy.
With today’s announcements, Amazon, already on track to become the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, takes the title of largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Europe, with more than 2.5 GW of renewable energy capacity, enough to power more than two million European homes a year.
The new announcements include nine projects in the U.S., Spain, and Sweden, as well as the company’s first renewable energy project in Canada, and the largest corporate renewable energy project in the UK. The projects will supply renewable energy to Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfillment centers, Whole Foods Market stores, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers.
According to Amazon, the new projects will put the company on track to meet its 100% renewable energy goal by 2025, five years ahead of the original 2030 target.
Amazon has emerged on a leading corporate voice in the fight against climate change. The company, together with climate change-focused organization Global Optimism, is a co-founder of the Climate Pledge, an initiative calling on companies to achieve net zero carbon across their businesses 10 years ahead of the Paris Accord’s 2050 target. Launched in 2019, the company has rapidly gained more than 50 signatories, including corporate leaders such as Microsoft, Unilever, Best Buy, Verizon, and IBM, among others.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO, said:
“Amazon continues to scale up its investments in renewable energy as part of its effort to meet The Climate Pledge, our commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040. With these nine new wind and solar projects, we have announced 206 renewable wind and solar projects worldwide, and we are now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Europe and globally. Many parts of our business are already operating on renewable energy, and we expect to power all of Amazon with renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original target of 2030.”