Amazon has a grand plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040
Amazon will add 615 MW (megawatts) solar energy projects to its existing portfolio. The corporate giant announced a renewable energy portfolio of more than 2.9 GW (gigawatts) last Thursday.
The company has pledged to run its entire operations on renewables, joining other tech giants such as Google and Apple in the race towards the controversial 100% renewables goal.
These 615 MW solar power projects will be set up in the entities global centers in China, United States and Australia. The energy will be used to generate electricity for Amazon’s fulfilment centres and data centres sprawled across the world. It is yet to be seen who the developers and installers of this large scale project will be.
The company intends to add two large scale solar power installations in the United States (U.S.), specifically in Ohio and Virginia. These installations will be of the cumulative capacity of 410 MW. Virginia has been an area where corporates have been aggressively procuring renewables over the years. Last year a state level law was passed in Virginia that entails a 100% clean energy capacity goal by the year 2045. This gives more impetus for corporates, individuals and developers to develop clean energy based projects in the area.
Amazon has a grand plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. This is a target set in line with the Paris climate agreement, albeit the timeline is a decade earlier than the 2050 timeline of the Paris agreement. With this new solar deal in place, Amazon is well on its way to achieve 100% power derived from renewables by the year 2025, which is five years earlier than its stipulated timeline of 2030 for the same goal.
Last year Amazon declared that it intended to purchase 100,000 electric vans for its delivery services. Despite being a major buyer of renewables in the US, the company faces stiff competition from other big players who have spiked their spending on renewable capacity addition at their respective locations over the last five years. A whopping 9.3 GW of renewable projects were acquired by large corporates and conglomerates last year alone.
Amazon’s plans to reach net zero emissions by 2040 takes into consideration carbon emissions produced by the company and its supply chain through manufacturing, packaging and delivery. However, the calculation of emissions doesn’t seem to take into consideration emissions from the entities software and computing products.
Just recently Google announced that it will not deal in AI (artificial intelligence) contracts with oil and gas companies. However, Amazon still has deals for computing services with oil and gas companies. It is unclear at the moment if the company will end its customer relationships with companies that deal in fossil fuels. The company, however, has taken a stand that the energy industry should have access to the same technologies as other industries.
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