Amazon’ continues clean energy commitment with Web Services Wind Farm

Online retailer Amazon has reinforced its pledge to power its global data centres entirely from renewables after successfully closing financing for the development of a 150MW wind farm in the US.


The Amazon Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge) in Benton County, Indiana, will provide the Amazon Web Services data centre with green electricity, obtained through a 13-year Power Purchase Agreement with developer Pattern Energy Group.

Siemens will provide $150m of construction financing along with 65 turbines and 67 transformers for the project, which is expected to generate approximately 500,000MW of wind power each year.

“The Amazon Wind Farm project has successfully closed financing and is moving ahead on schedule,” said Pattern Development chief executive Mike Garland. “We look forward to helping Amazon power its customers’ businesses with domestic clean energy harnessed from the winds of Indiana.”

Green giant

The development of this windfarm news comes soon after Amazon announced it would be joining the likes of Apple, Google and Facebook with “a long-term commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy usage for [its] global infrastructure footprint,” after criticism from Greenpeace for being “stuck in a dirty energy past”.

Amazon Web Services’ vice president of infrastructure Jerry Hunter said: “Our agreement on Amazon Web Services Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge) is part of our long-term commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy to power the AWS global infrastructure. “With agreements like this we’re increasing the amount of clean energy we consume while helping enable the construction of new renewable energy facilities.”

Resilience

Amazon Web Services supplies some of the Internet’s most popular websites and services with data storage, including Netflix, Pinterest, Reddit. The firm has already reached carbon-neutral status in its US West (Oregon), Europe (Germany), and AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

Thomas Richterich, chief executive of the Unit Onshore markets within the Siemens Wind Power and Renewables Division, said: “US technology companies such as Amazon are increasingly covering their rising energy demands with clean wind-based power. “We are pleased to be part of this, together with our customer over many years, Pattern Energy, to render wind power sustainable and affordable.” Only at the end of last year did Amazon pledge to run its data centres throughout the world with power from renewable energy sources.”

Commissioning for the 150MW Amazon Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge) project is planned for the first quarter of 2016.

Luke Nicholls

Action inspires action. Stay ahead of the curve with sustainability and energy newsletters from edie

Subscribe