Amazon expanded its renewable energy capacity by 8.3 gigawatts (GW) in 2022, bringing its total portfolio to more than 20 GW and setting a record for renewable energy purchased by a single company. The ecommerce giant is responsible for 401 renewable energy projects in 22 countries as part of its goal of utilizing 100% renewable energy across its operations in 2025 — five years ahead of its initial target.
Amazon’s renewable capacity is currently enough to power 5.3 million U.S. homes. The energy is used across operations including AWS data centers, Amazon fulfillment centers and physical stores around the world.
Once operational, Amazon’s global renewable energy projects are expected to generate 56,881 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean energy each year. The retailer also has announced 25 additional clean energy projects, including:
- Eleven new projects in Europe, including Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, totaling 372 megawatts (MW) of capacity, including two new offshore wind projects in Europe totaling 280 MW of capacity;
- Four new projects in North America, totaling 918 MW of energy, in Arizona, California and Texas. These will be paired with energy storage in California that allows Amazon to store clean energy produced by its solar projects and deploy it when solar energy is not available or during periods of high demand; and
- 10 new renewable energy projects in Asia, including a third 200 MW wind-solar hybrid project in India; Amazon’s first renewable energy project in Indonesia; and three on-site solar projects and a new 38 MW utility-scale solar project in Japan.
“These projects highlight the diversity of our renewable energy sources and showcase our ability to bring new technologies to new markets and further reduce the impacts of climate change,” said Adam Selipsky, CEO of AWS in a statement.
Amazon also has led the creation of the Emissions First coalition, an organization dedicated to advocating for the modernization of the carbon-accounting standard, with the goal of reducing carbon from global electricity grids as quickly and cost-effectively as possible. Other investments made by Amazon include:
- A $53 million investment through a partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) that includes $3 million to support the USAID partnership and $50 million from its Climate Pledge Fund for women-led climate tech companies;
- A partnership with Infinium to begin powering its transportation fleet with ultra-low carbon electrofuels beginning in 2023; and
- A new Amazon Fresh concept featuring more than a dozen store design upgrades expected to save nearly 185 tons of CO2 each year when compared to an industry-standard grocery store.
