Amazon Announces Three New Renewable Energy Projects to Support AWS Global Infrastructure
Three new wind farms in Ireland, Sweden, and the United States will
produce more than 670,000 MWh annually and support AWS’s goal to power
100% of its global infrastructure with renewable energy
Today, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced three new renewable energy
projects as part of its long-term goal to power all Amazon Web Services
(AWS) global infrastructure with renewable energy. These projects – one
in Ireland, one in Sweden, and one in the United States – will deliver
wind-generated energy that will total over 229 megawatts (MW) of power,
with expected generation of over 670,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of
renewable energy annually. The new projects are part of AWS’s long-term
commitment to achieve 100 percent renewable energy for its global
infrastructure. In 2018, AWS exceeded 50 percent renewable energy for
its global infrastructure. For more information, go to https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/sustainability/.
Once complete, these projects, combined with AWS’s previous nine
renewable energy projects, are expected to generate more than 2,700,000
MWh of renewable energy annually – equivalent to the annual electricity
consumption of over 262,000 US homes, which is approximately the size of
the city of Nashville, Tennessee.
“Each of these projects brings us closer to our long-term commitment to
use 100 percent renewable energy to power our global AWS
infrastructure,” said Peter DeSantis, Vice President of Global
Infrastructure and Customer Support, Amazon Web Services. “These
projects are well-positioned to serve AWS data centers in Ireland,
Sweden, and the US. We expect more projects in 2019 as we continue
toward our goal of powering all AWS global infrastructure with renewable
energy.”
Amazon has committed to buying the energy from a new wind project in
Ireland, a 91.2 MW wind farm in Donegal. The Donegal wind farm project
is expected to deliver clean energy no later than the end of 2021.
“AWS’s investment in renewable projects in Ireland illustrates their
continued commitment to adding clean energy to the grid and it will make
a positive contribution to Ireland’s renewable energy goals,” said Leo
Varadkar, An Taoiseach of Ireland. “As a significant employer in
Ireland, it is very encouraging to see Amazon taking a lead on this
issue. We look forward to continuing to work with Amazon as we strive to
make Ireland a leader on renewable energy.”
Amazon will also purchase 91 MW of power from a new wind farm in
Bäckhammar, Sweden, which is expected to deliver renewable energy by the
end of 2020.
“Sweden has long been known for ambitious renewable energy goals, and
this new wind farm showcases both our country’s leadership and AWS’s
commitment to renewable energy,” said Anders Ygeman, Sweden’s Minister
for Energy and Digital Development. “This is a significant step in
Sweden’s renewable energy production as we work toward our target of 100
percent renewable energy by 2040.”
California leads the United States in renewable electricity generation
from non-hydroelectric sources, and the state’s Tehachapi Mountains,
where AWS’s wind farm will be located, contain some of the largest wind
farms in the country. The wind farm project in Tehachapi is expected to
bring up to 47 MW of new renewable energy capacity by the end of 2020.
“This announcement from AWS is great news, not just for California, but
for the entire country, as it reaffirms our role as a leader in
renewable energy and allows us to take an important step forward on
deploying the clean energy we need to respond to climate change,” said
California State Senator Jerry Hill, San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties,
a member of the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and
Communications.
Beyond the sustainability initiatives focused on powering the AWS global
infrastructure, Amazon recently announced Shipment Zero, which is
Amazon’s vision to make all Amazon shipments net zero carbon, with 50
percent of all shipments net zero by 2030. Additional sustainability
programs across the company include Amazon Wind Farm Texas, which adds
more than 1 million MWh of clean energy each year. In total, Amazon has
enabled 53 wind and solar projects worldwide, which produce more than
1,016 MW and are expected to deliver over 3,075,636 million MWh of
energy annually. These projects support hundreds of jobs, while
providing tens of millions of dollars of investment in local
communities. Amazon has also set a goal to host solar energy systems at
50 fulfillment centers by 2020. This deployment of rooftop solar systems
is part of a long-term initiative that will start in North America and
spread across the globe. Amazon also implemented the District Energy
Project that uses recycled energy for heating Amazon offices in Seattle.
For more information on Amazon’s sustainability initiatives, visit www.amazon.com/sustainability.
About Amazon Web Services
For 13 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most
comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform. AWS offers over 165
fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking,
analytics, robotics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI),
Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and
augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development,
deployment, and management from 61 Availability Zones (AZs) within 20
geographic regions, spanning the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Canada, China,
France, Germany, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Sweden, and
the UK. Millions of customers including the fastest-growing startups,
largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power
their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more
about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.
About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than
competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational
excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping,
personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle
Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa
are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon. For more
information, visit amazon.com/about
and follow @AmazonNews.
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