Building new renewable energy projects—including solar and wind—is one of the most effective ways to slow the speed of climate change. As part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge commitment to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040, we’re supporting these efforts on a global scale. For the fifth year in a row, we’re the largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy globally, according to Bloomberg NEF, and have supported more than 600 wind and solar projects to date. In many cases, these projects wouldn’t be built without Amazon’s support, and together they will be capable of powering the equivalent of 8.3 million U.S. homes.
Through these projects, we help match the electricity consumed by our operations and bring net-new renewable energy to the grid, making it more sustainable and reliable for everyone. We’re also focused on placing projects on grids that rely heavily on carbon-intensive energy sources, where a solar or wind farm can have an even greater impact on avoiding carbon emissions and help phase out less sustainable energy options.
To date, Amazon has invested in more than 40 utility-scale solar and wind projects across countries with a mix of fossil fuel use and high emissions, including Australia, China, Greece, India, Indonesia, Poland, and South Africa, and states like Louisiana and Mississippi.
“Amazon isn’t just the top corporate purchaser of solar and wind, we’re also prioritizing projects in the locations where they can have the biggest impact on curbing emissions and improving the local environment,” said Amazon Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst. “When it comes to addressing climate change, speed and location matter. From collaborating on new energy policies, to accelerating renewables in underserved regions, Amazon is working to help decarbonize grids around the world as quickly as possible.”
Helping renewables optimize their impact
Building wind and solar projects on polluted grids is known as carbon matching, and it has the potential to significantly amplify the environmental benefits of a renewable energy project. According to WattTime, an environmental tech nonprofit, the world could avoid five gigatons of carbon dioxide by optimizing where wind and solar projects are located. Amazon is focused on putting that practice into action.
For example, in India, where the grid is primarily powered by fossil fuels, Amazon has invested in nine utility-scale solar and wind farms. By locating these projects in India, they have the potential to avoid 55 times more carbon emissions annually than if the projects were located in Sweden, one of the world’s most decarbonized power grids, according to publicly available sources and Amazon calculations. We’ve also worked closely with local leaders in these regions to launch new renewable energy projects.
- In South Africa, Amazon recently invested in the country’s first renewable project that will sell a portion of its power to small consumers. We also worked with the local government to negotiate new regulatory structures that are expected to help more corporations support local projects.
- In Poland, we’ve invested in three utility-scale wind farms, which are supporting the Polish government’s goal to increase renewable energy use.
- In Greece, we’ve signed eight agreements for renewable energy projects, including three new utility-scale wind farms. Together, the projects are expected to provide enough energy to power the equivalent of more than 300,000 Greek homes.
“Building renewable energy anywhere is a good thing, but studies show that building projects in hard-to-decarbonize communities drives the greatest environmental impact—an important step that too many companies are leaving behind,” said Gavin McCormick, executive director of WattTime and co-founder of Climate TRACE. “Amazon is proving it is possible to bring renewable energy to high-impact regions like Poland, South Africa, and India. While these regions might be challenging to build in, they aren’t impossible, and these investments are a critical step to helping slow the pace of climate change.”
Amazon-backed renewable projects are changing local communities
Amazon-backed solar and wind projects are already creating positive results in hard-to-decarbonize regions in Mississippi. For example, three operational solar farms backed by Amazon currently make up nearly 24% of all operational solar energy in the state as of 2024, according to publicly available data. In Louisiana, a single solar farm backed by Amazon accounts for 17% of the operational solar in the state.
Amazon recently announced an innovative agreement with Entergy Mississippi to enable 650 megawatts of additional renewables locally in the next three years. Together, all Amazon-backed projects in Mississippi are expected to produce enough energy to power the equivalent of 303,000 U.S. homes, and provide new sources of renewable energy to the local grid.
The projects bring economic benefits too. Amazon’s solar and wind farms globally helped to generate more than $12 billion in investments in communities from 2014 through 2022. And in 2022, these utility-scale renewable energy projects supported more than 39,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
Supporting long-term grid stability
Alongside traditional wind and solar projects, grid decarbonization also requires technologies that can deliver more consistent power when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining. In 2024, Amazon continued accelerating support for energy storage and energy firming technologies, and has enabled a total of 2.7 gigawatts of related capacity to date. This includes investing in 11 solar and battery storage agreements, including the Baldy Mesa battery storage system, which is monitored through machine learning powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). We’ve also signed four nuclear energy agreements, including projects in Pennsylvania and Washington state.
Amazon remains committed to investing in new renewable energy projects across the world, and collaborating closely with lawmakers, utilities, and other stakeholders to help our society make the transition to more sustainable energy sources.
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