Amazon announces huge renewable energy investment in the Netherlands
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Amazon announces huge renewable energy investment in the Netherlands

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Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) announced its plans to buy half of the energy produced by a new wind farm in the Netherlands.

The offshore wind project in the Netherlands is scheduled for operation by 2023, and will be Amazon’s largest single-site renewable energy project to date. It will have an overall capacity of 759MW that will supply the electrical grid powering the Netherlands without government subsidies.

Amazon is purchasing over 50% of that capacity, a total of 380MW, to power its operations in Europe.

The offshore wind farm is operated by the Crosswind Consortium, a joint venture between energy companies Shell and Eneco.

“Our collaboration combines Amazon's scale with the innovation of the Crosswind Consortium,” said the company in a written release.

“In this project, the Consortium has proposed a number of unique innovations for the wind farm including technology demonstrations that could be implemented at full scale in the future.

“These include a floating solar park, short-term battery storage, optimally tuned turbines, and ‘green hydrogen’ made by electrolysis as a further storage technique.

“In addition, this project offers the opportunity to demonstrate the combination of these measures to ensure a continuous power supply regardless of wind conditions.”

On December 10, 2020, Amazon became the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.

In 2019, Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge, a commitment to reach the Paris Agreement 10 years early and be net-zero carbon by 2040.

Amazon is the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy, with 187 solar and wind projects worldwide.

“These projects have the capacity to generate over 6.9 GW and deliver more than 20 million MWh of energy annually,” added Amazon.

“They include 62 utility-scale wind and solar projects and 125 solar rooftops on fulfilment centres and sort centres around the globe.

“Across Europe, these investments include 20 solar rooftops atop Amazon fulfilment centres and 16 utility-scale wind and solar projects in Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Sweden. This is Amazon’s second offshore wind project.”

In the UK, last year Amazon also unveiled the largest solar panel installation on any Amazon site across Europe.

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