Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announces the co-founder of The Climate Pledge at the National Press Club on Sept. 19, 2019 in Washington.
Paul Morigi | Getty Images | Amazon
LONDON – Amazon announced on Monday that it plans to buy half of the energy produced by a massive new wind farm in the Netherlands.
Shell and Eneco acquired the right to build the 759 megawatt wind farm in the North Sea last July and Amazon said it would now purchase more than 380 MW of its output to power its operations in Europe.
Amazon said the “Amazon-Shell HKN Offshore Wind Project” will be its largest single-site renewable energy project to date. The offshore wind farm is expected to be operational in 2023.
The wind farm is located 18.5 kilometers off the Dutch coast and has an area of 125 square kilometers. It is operated by the CrossWind Consortium, a Shell and Eneco joint venture.
It will reportedly contain 69 Siemens Gamesa wind turbines with a capacity of 11 MW and a rotor diameter of 200 meters.
The offshore wind farm will include five technology demonstrations that have the potential to be fully deployed in the future, including a floating solar farm and “optimally tuned turbines”.
Tech turns green
Like other tech giants, Amazon wants to use its billions to pay for more renewables and reduce its carbon footprint.
The company’s data centers around the world use massive amounts of electricity to perform computing tasks for Amazon and other companies.
Over the years, Greenpeace has accused Amazon of being relatively secretive about the energy resources it uses to power the centers operated by Amazon Web Services.
Amazon has also been criticized for increasing pollution with its planes and vans, and for using excessive amounts of cardboard in packaging its products.
Amazon said the Dutch project will bring it closer to its goal of being decarbonised by 2040 and using 100% renewable energy by 2025, which is five years ahead of schedule.
The company said it now has 187 solar and wind projects worldwide. That includes 125 rooftop solar installations on its massive warehouses, which it calls fulfillment centers.
The largest rooftop solar installation in Europe is in the UK and equates to 28 football fields, meaning it can produce enough power for 700 homes for a year, Amazon said.
Amazon added that its renewable energy projects now generate more than 6.9 gigawatts and deliver more than 20 million megawatt hours of energy annually.
Amazon claims it is the world’s second largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.