Second of its kind from the online shopping giant, a solar farm will be developed in New South Wales, reaching capacities of 105MW. This destination will sit alongside four others that were announced to be rolled out through the US and China, as part of a huge commitment from Amazon to generate 90 per cent of energy from renewables by the year 2024.
It also plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, and these developments are a nod to its shift in values.
A 100MW solar farm will sit within China, while three others will fall into Ohio and Virginia in the US. A total of 615MW will see these developments pave new ground for the company overall.
Amazon’s keen eyes on Australia
Back in Australia, the company announced its first solar farm in March this year, which came off the back of a deal with Canadian Solar to buy 146MW in output from the Gunnedah farm in NSW. Both of these developments come after Amazon’s unsuccessful bit late in 2019, to have all greenhouse gas emissions data withheld from public eyes. Their argument was that the data could “reveal trade secrets”.
Initially, the Clean Energy Regulator in Australia denied Amazon’s request around the public release of information, stating that the company’s primary focus on hosting services equated to 55,739 tonnes of emissions in the 2017-18 financial year.
On the brighter side, Amazon has announced it will develop 31 utility-scale wind and solar projects across renewables,m including 60 solar rooftops. These will be implemented on fulfilment and sort centres internationally.
Once established, these projects will contribute to more than 2,900MW of capacity and deliver a huge 7.6 million MWh of renewable energy every year. That’s enough to power 68,000 US homes, according to Renew Economy.
Kara Hurst, Vice President of Sustainability of Amazon, said: “As a signatory to The Climate Pledge, we’re committed to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement 10 years early and reaching net-zero carbon across Amazon by 2040.”
She also added that these projects are a huge part of the company’s roadmap to reach their main goal. She believes that it is possible to reach 100 per cent renewables by 2025, which is five years ahead of the goals that had been announced last fall.
“While this will be challenging, we have a credible plan to get there,” she said.
