Amazon has shared plans for its two renewable energy projects. The first is a wind farm, to be located in Ireland. The second is a solar farm at the Amazon operational center in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Both projects are to be completed in 2020.
The constructions are not token projects; both builds will deliver a combined 168,000 MWh of clean energy per annum. The projects are part of Amazon’s aim to have all of its operations running off renewable power.
Behind the new plans is a public relations response following some adverse publicity that Amazon received when its major corporate shareholders turned down a request from 8,000 Amazon employees who petitioned the company to do more on climate change.
On April 10, 2019, Amazon employees published a letter on Medium requesting that Amazon’s board of directors put in plans schemes to tackle climate change. This was rejected at a shareholder meeting in May.
Despite the criticisms, Amazon has not been standing still when it comes to renewable energy projects. The two new schemes represent Amazon’s 65th and 66th renewable energy projects to date. According to Engadget, Amazon’s successful solar energy solar projects in the U.S. have already offset the carbon dioxide equivalent of over 200 million miles of truck deliveries. These projects included a 80MW solar farm in Virginia, which supplies Amazon Web Services data centers on top of the local grid.
READ MORE: Renewables: Apple leads the way with corporate solar power usage
Speaking about the two new projects and the future, Kara Hurst, Director of Sustainability at Amazon said: “Playing a significant role in helping to reduce the sources of human-induced climate change is an important commitment for Amazon. Major investments in renewable energy are a critical step to address our carbon footprint globally. We will continue to invest in these projects, and look forward to additional investments this year and beyond.”
