In 2019, Amazon released its company-wide initiative to match 100% of its energy consumption across all operations - including its data centers, corporate buildings, grocery stores, and fulfillment centers - with renewable energy by 2030.
Recently, Amazon released a report sharing that the company has successfully achieved this goal seven years ahead of schedule. This corporate initiative was largely driven by the increasing demand for generative artificial intelligence (AI), which requires substantial amounts of power to operate.
To achieve this, Amazon has aggressively invested billions of dollars in more than 500 wind and solar projects worldwide, generating enough energy to power the equivalent of 7.6 million US homes. According to Bloomberg NEF, the company also became the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in the world for four years in a row.
“Reaching our renewable energy goal is an incredible achievement, and we’re proud of the work we’ve done to get here, seven years early. We also know that this is just a moment in time, and our work to decarbonize our operations will not always be the same each year—we’ll continue to make progress while also constantly evolving on our path to 2040,” said Amazon's Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst.
Since 2019, Amazon has helped establish nearly 300 on-site solar projects on the rooftops of the company's fulfillment centers and several Whole Foods Market stores. Once all of the projects in Amazon's renewable energy portfolio are operational, they will help avoid an estimated 27.8 million tons of carbon annually.
Amazon has also supported the construction of multiple renewable energy projects across 27 countries, including India, Greece, South Africa, Japan, and Indonesia. To accomplish this, Amazon engaged policymakers to establish policies that allowed the company to support solar and wind project construction in these countries.
“By achieving its 100% renewable energy goal, Amazon has made it possible for hundreds of new solar and wind projects to be constructed, bringing new sources of clean energy to grids and communities around the world,” said Kyle Harrison, Head of Sustainability Research at BloombergNEF. “Addressing climate change while balancing society’s skyrocketing energy demands is a massive challenge, and Amazon’s commitment to clean power demonstrates how a single company can help accelerate the transition to the low-carbon economy on a global scale.”
With operations underway at Delta Wind, a utility-scale wind farm in Mississippi, the project is generating carbon-free energy to help power Amazon’s nearby operations, including future data centers. The company’s deal with Entergy will enable 650 MW of new renewable energy projects in Mississippi over the next three years and provide funding for future upgrades to the local grid and energy infrastructure over the next two decades. Amazon aims for a total of 1.3 GW of new renewable energy projects through a combination of new solar and wind farms being built across the state.
Additionally, Amazon is supporting nearly 1.7 GW of capacity across six offshore wind farms in Europe, which are expected to produce enough energy to power 1.8 million average European homes, once fully operational. The company is also working with developers focused on optimizing wind turbine technology, which helps maximize the amount of electricity produced.
In Japan, Amazon is announcing its onshore wind farm and standalone utility-scale solar project, a 33 MW wind project in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, as well as a 9.5 MW solar farm located in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The projects include 14 on-site solar installations on rooftops of local Amazon buildings and six offsite wind and solar projects.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the world needs to add or replace 80 million km of grids by 2040 to meet climate targets, and more than 1,500 GW of renewables projects are in the queue globally. Amazon is engaging with energy regulators to find ways to support grid modernization, remove permitting obstacles, and deploy grid-enhancing technologies to help address the issues.
