- Amazon is the “top corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Europe”
- 10 European countries got solar and wind power investments
- Amazon wants to be net-zero carbon by 2040
Amazon has boldly declared it is now the “top corporate purchaser of renewable energy in Europe,” giving it another string to its bow against Microsoft and Google.
In 2024 alone, the ecommerce and cloud computing giant says it added 26 renewable energy projects and 20 onsite installations up and down Europe, consisting primarily of solar and wind farms.
The biggest beneficiary of Amazon’s 2024 energy investments was Spain, with 15 new solar and wind farms and a further two onsite solar installations.
Amazon is betting big on European renewable energy
Amazon’s total reach now spans more than 230 solar and wind projects across Europe, with its renewable energy portfolio generating 9 GW of energy – enough to power the equivalent of 6.7 million European homes annually.
Italy, Greece, Finland, the UK, Germany, France and the Czech Republic also benefitted from extensive solar investments, with Northern Ireland and Portugal receiving investments in wind farms.
“Increasing the amount of renewable energy on Europe’s electricity grids is the fastest and cheapest way to help Europe’s economy decarbonize at scale and fight against climate change,” noted Amazon’s EMEA Director of Energy for Europe, Lindsay McQuade.
Amazon is yet to release its 2024 Sustainability Report, but in 2023 the company said that it used “lower-carbon materials” like steel and concrete, and switched some of those out for wood, to save 46,700 tonnes of CO2e that year – the same amount of emissions that 11,100 US cars would produce in 12 months.
AWS is also reconsidering its backup generators, with sites in Ireland, Sweden, and Oregon now using hydrotreated vegetable oil for fuel rather than diesel.
Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst confirmed Amazon’s plans to smash Paris Agreement plans, reaching net-zero carbon emissions a decade early in 2040. She also confirmed that the entire company reached 100% renewable energy consumption seven years early in 2023.
The company also wants to be water-positive by the end of this decade – a topic of contention in the world of data centers, where powerful computers consume vast amounts of water for cooling.
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