Amazon announced days ago that it will be establishing 26 large-scale public solar and wind power plants in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, South Africa, Sweden, UK, and within the US, totaling 127 green energy development projects, which means that Amazon will replace Google as the largest green electricity purchasing enterprise in the world.
The 26 renewable energy development projects are worth 3.4GW (3,400MW) in total capacity, and Amazon is now sitting at a total of 35 investments in renewable energy for 2020 that equal 4GW.
Amazon stated that the company currently has 6.5GW of total capacity from its affiliated wind and solar power plants that are able to produce 1,800MWh of green electricity each year that provide power for home offices, logistics and distribution centers, and AMS data centers, which is equivalent to the annual power supply for 1,700 households. The company is also planning to expedite on the greening progress, and hopes to achieve 100% renewable energy 5 years in advance by 2025.
Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, commented that the company is dedicated in providing green electricity from renewable energy for relevant businesses in order to further respond to climate change. Amazon currently has 127 renewable energy projects, which comprise of 59 units of public wind and solar power plants, and 68 rooftop solar units from logistics and distribution centers all around the world; the company is also the largest purchaser in renewable energy in the history.
Miranda Ballentine, CEO of Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) formed with major US enterprises and non-profit organizations, commented that investments from private institutions are relatively important in the expansion of renewable energy distribution for the purpose of battling climate change.
Amazon had also co-established the Climate Pledge with Global Optimism in 2019, which aims to achieve the targets of the Paris Agreement 10 years in advance, as well as zero carbon emission by 2040. So far, 31 enterprises have joined the Climate Pledge, including Unilever, Verizon, Siemens, Microsoft, Coco-Cola, and Nestle.
As for Taiwan, TSMC is the largest enterprise in purchasing green electricity, and has signed for a total of 1.2GW renewable energy purchase contracts as of July 2020, while also updated the company’s targets for 2030 that include the devotion in utilizing 25% and 100% renewable energy for production and non-production factories respectively, whereas the long-term objective is to utilize 100% green electricity for the entire company. TSMC had signed with Orsted in July on the largest green electricity purchase contract in the world, which totals to 920MW in capacity.
(Cover photo source: Amazon)