Amazonin (NASDAQ: AMZN) the crusade against climate change continues. In its latest move, the e-commerce giant struck a deal to buy 380 megawatts (MW) of wind power from Hollandse Kust Noord, a wind farm on the coast of the Netherlands being developed by The Crosswind, a consortium between major oil companies Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS.B) and Eneco, a Netherlands-based energy company owned by the Japanese company Mitsubishi (OTC: MSBHF).
Amazon says that this project, called Amazon-Shell HKN Offshore Wind Project, is also the “largest single-site renewable energy project” so far.
The wind farm is expected to be operational in 2023, with an installed capacity of 759 MW. This means that Amazon will buy 50% of its total energy from 2024 to power its operations in Europe, including 250 MW from Shell and 130 MW from Eneco.
Image source: Getty Images.
This project takes Amazon one step closer to its goal of becoming a 100% renewable energy company by 2025, five years before its original goal announced in late 2019 in its Climate Commitment.
Amazon has made significant investments in renewable energy since then. In 2020, it became the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy, having announced 127 solar and wind energy projects with 6.5 gigawatts (GW) of capacity by December 10, 2020.
With its most recent offshore wind project, Amazon’s global wind and solar projects now total 187, with a capacity of 6.9 GW.
Lately, Amazon has consistently made headlines for its clean energy initiatives. The first of its three wind farms in Ireland went into operation earlier this month, and the company has just ordered more than 1,000 natural gas engines for its distribution fleet. These moves reflect Amazon’s commitment to become liquid zero carbon by 2040.