Amazon To Add 9 New Solar & Wind Projects To Portfolio

• Amazon has announced further investment in renewable energy comprising a total of around 1.2 GW capacity
• It includes the company's maiden investment in a solar and storage project in California, US
• The company has also made its 1^st renewable energy investment in Canada with an 80 MW solar facility

Global e-commerce giant Amazon has invested in new utility scale solar and wind power projects representing around 1.2 GW in aggregate, located across the US, Canada, Spain, Sweden and the UK, which it claims makes it the 'largest' buyer of renewable energy in the world.

The new investments have a lot of 'firsts' for Amazon including its 1^st solar project with energy storage, with 100 MW solar and 70 MW energy storage capacity. To be located in California's Imperial Valley, it will deploy next-generation technologies for energy storage and management, added Amazon.

An 80 MW solar project in the County of Newell in Alberta is the company's '1^st' investment in Canada with potential to generate more than 195,000 MWh annually.

Among other solar projects Amazon has signed up for include those located in Spain's Extremadura and Andalucia, together representing over 170 MW capacity, and new projects in Allen, Auglaize and Licking counties in Ohio, US of undefined capacity.

The other capacity comprises a 350 MW wind farm in Scotland, 118 MW in the US, and a 258 MW onshore wind facility in Northern Sweden.

Amazon clarified that the solar and wind projects in Ohio together represent more than 400 MW new energy procurement. It did not reveal project developers or other details about the new investments.

Altogether, with the addition of these projects, Amazon has now 206 renewable energy projects representing 8.5 GW capacity globally, comprising 71 utility scale wind and solar projects and 135 solar rooftops on facilities and its stores. It claims to be the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Europe with over 2.5 GW capacity.

Power generated from these projects will power the company's corporate offices, fulfillment centers, Whole Foods Market stores, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers.

"With these 9 new wind and solar projects, we have announced 206 renewable wind and solar projects worldwide, and we are now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Europe and globally," said Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos. "Many parts of our business are already operating on renewable energy, and we expect to power all of Amazon with renewable energy by 2025—five years ahead of our original target of 2030."

In December 2020, Amazon announced its investment in 26 new utility scale solar and wind power projects with 3.4 GW capacity making the company the biggest ever corporate renewable energy buyer back then (see Amazon Invests In 3.4 GW Renewable Energy Capacity).