Amazon announced that it will set up three solar farms in Rajasthan with a combined capacity of 420 megawatt (MW). This will be the first time that the e-commerce major is setting up a solar farm in the country. These would include a 210 MW project to be developed by ReNew Power, a 100 MW project to be developed by Amp Energy India and a 110 MW project to be developed by Brookfields Renewable Partners for which power purchase agreements (PPAs) have been signed.
Further, Amazon will also set up 23 new solar rooftop projects with a capacity to generate an additional 4.09 MW of power – across 14 cities in India. This would increase the company’s total number of solar rooftop projects in the country to 41 with 19.7 MW of renewable energy capacity.
“Amazon is committed to helping scale corporate renewable energy procurement options in the country, bringing associated green jobs and investments to more parts of India,” said Abhinav Singh, Director- Customer Fulfillment, supply chain, and Amazon Transportation Services, at Amazon India.
The total 2.7 GW of additional renewable energy being set up globally includes its first solar farms in Brazil and Poland. Once fully operational, Amazon’s global renewable energy portfolio will generate 50,000-gigawatt hours (GWh) of clean energy, equivalent to powering 4.6 mn US homes every year, it said.
“Besides these PPAs, our efforts include providing training for developers and other buyers on how to structure these agreements for mutual benefit, facilitating government dialogues with industry groups to highlight the importance of corporate buyers, and working with local energy providers who want to reach new customers,” he added.
Combined, these farms have the capacity to generate 1.07 mn megawatt hours (1,076,000 MWh) of renewable energy per year, enough to power more than 360,000 average-sized households in New Delhi annually.
“As we support India’s historic clean energy transition, our work with global leaders such as Amazon is critical in decarbonizing the corporate sector and the broader economy. Leading organizations such as Amazon set an example for other companies globally to adopt clean energy sources and accelerate the energy transition, a pre-requisite to meet our net-zero goals,” Sumant Sinha, Founder, Chairman, and CEO at ReNew Power, said.
In a separate statement, Amp Energy India said the 100 MW solar power plant in Rajasthan will be fully operational by the end of 2023 and help mitigate 1.13 lakh MT of harmful CO2 emissions. “This project also supports the government’s ‘Digital India’ mission of transforming India into a digitally empowered society powered by renewable energy,” MD and CEO Pinaki Bhattacharyya said.
Amazon’s India projects are part of its plans to expand its global renewable energy capacity by setting up 71 new projects across the globe, which when operational would generate a total of 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of green power. Apart from India, it will set up large-scale plants in South Africa, France, Austria, and Poland.
The total 2.7 GW of additional renewable energy being set up globally includes its first solar farms in Brazil and Poland. Once fully operational, Amazon’s global renewable energy portfolio will generate 50,000-gigawatt hours (GWh) of clean energy, equivalent to powering 4.6 mn US homes every year, it said.
As the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally, Amazon now has a total of 379 renewable energy projects across 21 countries, including 154 wind and solar farms and 225 rooftop solar projects, representing 18.5 GW of renewable energy capacity. In the Asia-Pacific region, the company now has a total of 57 renewable energy projects. By the end of 2021, the company had reached 85% renewable energy across its business.
