Amazon has today launched The Climate Pledge, Amazon’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040, ten years ahead of the Paris Agreement.
As part of this pledge, Amazon have set goals, such as being 100% powered by renewable energy by 2025, including in Ireland.
Amazon are making investments and innovating to help achieve these goals and have announced a new 115-megawatt (MW) wind farm project in Ardderroo, Galway, which will begin operating in 2022, and will support Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centres in the country.
The new project in Ardderroo adds to existing projects in Esk, Co. Cork, which will come online in September 2020, and Meenbog, Co. Donegal, which will follow in early 2022. In total, these three projects are projected to add 229 MW of renewable energy to the Irish grid each year, reducing carbon emissions by 366,000 tonnes of CO2 each year, and producing enough renewable energy to power 185,000 Irish homes per annum.
To be powered by renewable energy in Ireland, Amazon have committed to offtake 100% of the power from these projects without relying on public funding. As a result, Amazon are the first organisation in Ireland to sign unsubsidised Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPAs). Once all projects are operational, Amazon will be the largest single corporate buyer of renewable energy in the country.
Source: www.businessworld.ie
