Amazon announced that it will increase its renewable energy capacity in 2022 by 8.3 gigawatts with 133 new projects in 11 countries. This brings Amazon’s total portfolio to more than 20 gigawatts — which can generate the amount of energy to power 5.3 million homes in the United States — across 401 renewable energy projects in 22 countries.
The company’s renewable energy purchases continue to add new wind and solar projects on the grids that power Amazon’s operations, including Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, Amazon fulfillment centers, and physical stores around the world.
Through these ongoing investments, Amazon set a new record for renewable energy announced by a single company in one year. The company remains the largest buyer of renewable energy—2, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Amazon’s continued investment in renewable energy is helping to accelerate Grow in new territories through innovative deal structures, technologies and cloud solutions.
These purchases also bring Amazon closer to running its operations on 100% renewable energy by 2025 — five years earlier than its original 2030 goal.
In 2022, the company announced new projects in Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Poland, Singapore, Spain and the United States, and started in Brazil, India and Indonesia.
With 25 new renewable energy projects secured by the end of the year, the company now has 401 projects globally, including 164 wind farms and solar farms, and 237 rooftop solar projects at Amazon facilities. Once operational, Amazon’s global renewable energy projects are expected to generate 56,881 GWh of clean energy each year.
Clean energy
“As we continue to launch new renewable energy projects around the world, we are thrilled to be on track to power our operations with 100% renewable energy, five years ahead of our original goal,” said Adam Celebski, CEO of AWS. With 133 projects announced in 11 countries in 2022, “Amazon has had another record year,” he said. “These projects highlight our diversity of renewable energy sources and showcase our ability to bring new technologies to new markets and further reduce the impacts of climate change.”
In addition to the 108 clean energy projects the company announced in 2022, today Amazon is announcing 25 additional clean energy projects for 2022. These include:
Eleven new projects in Europe, including Finland, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, with a total capacity of 372 MW. Leveraging one of the world’s best renewable energy resources, Amazon continued to add to its portfolio of offshore wind projects, investing in two new offshore wind projects in Europe with a total capacity of 280MW.
Four new projects in North America, totaling 918 MW of power in Arizona, California and Texas A new solar project paired with energy storage in California allows Amazon to store and deploy the clean energy produced by its solar projects when solar is not available.
Like in the evening hours, or during periods of high demand, also in California, Amazon added its first on-site solar project in the Amazon Air Hub, where employees pack and handle shipping and perform aircraft-side operations.
Ten new renewable energy projects in India, Indonesia and Japan.
In India, a third 200-megawatt wind-solar hybrid project has been added to Amazon’s first two solar-wind hybrid projects. Renewable hybrid power systems can play a key role in helping India accelerate the decarbonization of power generation, and reduce the cost of electricity in the medium term.
These hybrid power systems also maximize clean energy use on the grid by combining two technologies with different generation profiles, reduce variance in renewable generation, and improve grid stability.
In Indonesia, Amazon has invested in its first renewable energy projects, securing a first-of-its-kind agreement for the companies to gain access to additional utility-scale solar projects.
In Japan, Amazon has added three on-site solar projects and a new 38MW large-scale solar project.
Rapid expansion
Rapidly expanding the use of renewable energy is one of the most effective strategies for combating climate change. To ensure that organizations’ purchases of renewable energy have the greatest impact on reducing emissions, Amazon recently led the creation of the new Emissions First alliance.
This coalition leads advocacy efforts to modernize the world’s leading carbon accounting standard, helping to decarbonise global power grids as quickly and cost-effectively as possible.
“Amazon’s clean energy portfolio not only tops companies’ charts, but is now among the leading utilities globally as well,” said Kyle Harrison, head of sustainability research at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. In a year mired in the global energy crisis, supply chain bottlenecks and high interest rates, she speaks of her future planning and experience in navigating energy markets and executing long-term contracts.
“Amidst the market uncertainty of 2022, Amazon has led clean energy buyers and
