Image: Time Magazine
In a bid to generate a clean and stable electricity supply for its data centers in South Africa, U.S. multinational Amazon is developing utility-scale wind and solar projects.
According to a recent announcement by the company, 26 projects with a total generation capacity of 3.4 GW will be developed across eight countries, bringing its total investment in renewable projects in 2020 to 35, with more than 4 GW capacity. As a result, Amazon will represent the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy globally.
“Amazon is helping fight climate change by moving quickly to power our businesses with renewable energy,” said Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon. “With a total of 127 solar and wind projects, Amazon is now the biggest corporate buyer of renewable energy ever. We are on a path to running 100% of our business on renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original target of 2030. This is just one of the many steps we’re taking that will help us meet our Climate Pledge. I couldn’t be more proud of all the teams across Amazon that continue to work hard, smart and fast to get these projects up and running.”
In addition to powering Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfillment centers and data centers,the projects serve to achieve the company’s objective of net-zero carbon emissions across its operations by 2030. The company is currently five years ahead of its schedule to utilize 100% renewable energy throughout its infrastructure.
Countries in which projects are located include South Africa, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.