Amazon, the U.S. multinational e-commerce conglomerate has decided to expand its renewable energy targets by adding 615 megawatts of solar projects to its existing renewable energy portfolio of 2.9 gigawatts. Amazon has been a supporter of renewable energy led business practices since many years now. Recently they have announced 5 additional renewable energy projects in the countries of Australia, China and the United States. These projects will be initiated with the involvement of other companies, whose names haven’t been officially announced yet. The US ecommerce giant plans to use this set up for powering their shipping warehouses and data centres. Amazons commitment is to achieve 80 percent of clean energy by 2024 and 100 percent of clean energy by 2030 (or 2025), as well as to achieve net zero carbon emission by the year 2040. The first renewable energy project to be set up in China is a 100 megawatt (MW) Shandong solar project. Once completed, the project is estimated to produce clean energy of 128,000 megawatt hours (MWh) per annum. The second renewable Energy project set up in Australia is a 105 MW New South Wales solar project. This project will have the ability to produce 250,000 MWh of clean energy every year, which will be enough to power about 40,000 Australian homes on an average. The latest U.S. clean energy projects from Amazon include two additional projects in Ohio, an 80 MW solar project, and a 200 MW solar project. In addition, a new 130 MW solar project in Virginia will bring the total number of Commonwealth clean energy projects to 12. These three U.S.-based projects once set up, will have the ability to power about 69,000 US homes on an average. Amazons plans to achieve net-zero carbon emissions include the emissions directly produced by the company and its supply chain, such as packaging manufacturing and package delivery. But its unclear whether its carbon footprint calculation counts emissions that can result from the use of its software and computing products. SOURCES: https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/amazon-adds-615-megawatts-of-large-scale-solar
