The new wind farm will generate enough energy to power almost 90,000 US homes and will consist of more than 100 turbines, each with a rotor diameter twice as long as the wingspan of a Boeing 747. It is scheduled to open in late 2017 and will be Amazon’s largest renewable energy project to date.
The company previously announced plans to construct wind and solar farms in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia that will deliver energy to the electrical grids supplying both current and future Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud data centres. The five projects together will generate more than 2.6 million MWh of renewable energy each year, enough to power more than 240,000 US homes.
“We’re excited to work with the community in Scurry County and Lincoln Clean Energy to generate 1,000,000 MWh of renewable energy each year from West Texas” said Kara Hurst, director of sustainability, Amazon. “Amazon Wind Farm Texas is our largest renewable energy project to date and the newest milestone in our long-term sustainability efforts across the company.”
Amazon contracted with Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE), who will construct, own and operate the new wind farm. Amazon will purchase about 90 percent of the power generated by the wind farm. LCE is a leading developer of wind and solar projects across the United States and is a portfolio company of I Squared Capital, a global infrastructure fund.
Declan Flanagan, founder and CEO of Lincoln Clean Energy, added that LCE applauds Amazon’s leadership in directly purchasing renewable power and that direct purchasing by large, long-term thinking customers like Amazon has quickly become a key driver of the transition to renewable power across the US.
Amazon Wind Farm Texas is one of several clean energy initiatives Amazon is undertaking. Examples of other projects include wind and solar farms to add renewable energy to the electrical grids that supply AWS Cloud datacentres, green rooftops, and the District Energy Project that uses recycled energy for heating offices in Seattle.
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