Amazon announced today it has achieved the company’s ambitious goal of powering its global operations with 100% renewable energy. This was in 2023, seven years ahead of its initial target of 2030.
In 2019, Amazon made a commitment to reach the goal of matching every watt of electricity used across its vast network of data centers, corporate buildings, grocery stores, and fulfillment centers with clean, renewable energy by 2030. At the time, skeptics doubted whether a sweeping commitment like this was actually possible for a company of Amazon’s size. But prove them wrong, the e-commerce giant did.
As such, Amazon has become the world’s largest corporate procurer of renewable energy and has invested billions of dollars in over 500 projects globally, mainly in solar and wind. These projects combined are capable of producing enough energy for close to 7.6 million homes in the U.S. From wind farms in the Midwest to solar arrays in Singapore, leadership by Amazon on sustainability transforms the energy landscape.
In Singapore, for instance, it partnered with the Portuguese company EDPR and the local Sembcorp in developing two large renewable energy projects—an approximately 62-megawatt solar project and a 17.6-megawatt one—that now, taken together, supply clean energy to nearly 20,000 Singaporean households a year.
Kara Hurst, Amazon’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said of the commitment, “Hitting our renewable energy goal nine years early is just the beginning. We’re far from done. We’ll continue to make the case that the future requires bold climate policy, and we’re committed to working with policymakers and stakeholders to advocate for policies that support decarbonization and bring us closer to our vision for a sustainable future.”.
A Turning Point
What Amazon achieved is so much more than a corporate milestone; it marks a turning point for the entire renewable energy industry. Leading by example that large-scale business can move toward the clean-energy economy meant that it was possible and actually going to be done. It is in a world where struggles to cope with the menace of climate change—a success story to be both a light of hope and evidence that commitment can alter the playing field.
Transparency and Concerns
Some experts question the methodology used to make Amazon’s clean energy claims. The problem, it seems, is in the very indirection of buying renewable energy. In contrast to a direct power-purchase agreement—in which electricity flows straight from a certain source to a certain user—Amazon’s method involves injecting clean energy into the general grid. That grid, in turn, provides power to a wide array of entities, including Amazon’s own facilities.
Critics have stated that this methodology, in reality, overestimates the actual environmental benefit of Amazon’s efforts. Since the clean energy produced does not directly power only Amazon’s operations, according to Amazon’s calculations, this might result in an overestimation of how much it reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
But Amazon is adamant that it doesn’t mean to relent on its fight for sustainability. For the amount it is putting in these renewable energy projects, Amazon argues that they are of huge scale and can bring in enough electricity to power an estimated 7.6 million American homes. And it has also set one challenge for itself: net-zero carbon emissions related to all operations by 2040 — whether that be of delivery vehicles or airplanes.
