Amazon has bought a second wind farm in Ireland. It comes after the online retail firm announced in April it was to buy all the energy from a wind farm in Co. Donegal.
The Cork project will supply clean energy to the company’s web services data centres that power Amazon.
Once complete, the wind farm will provide 23.2 megawatts (MW) of renewable capacity, with an expected generation of 68,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean energy per year.
Amazon said the two farms are expected to begin producing clean energy in 2020.
It has also bought a solar farm in the US state of Virginia – the company’s 65th and 66th renewable energy projects respectively. Globally, the firm has 66 renewable energy projects – including 51 solar rooftops.
Kara Hurst, director of sustainability at Amazon, told Newstalk Radio: “Playing a significant role in helping to reduce the sources of human-induced climate change is an important commitment for Amazon. Major investments in renewable energy are a critical step to address our carbon footprint globally. We will continue to invest in these projects, and look forward to additional investments this year and beyond.”
Environment Minister Richard Bruton said: “This project is another example of [Amazon Web Services] commitment to renewable projects in Ireland, adding clean energy to the grid, and supporting Ireland’s climate commitments. Construction will begin on this project this year and will start contributing to Ireland’s renewable energy capacity by 2020.”
The Irish Wind Energy Association has welcomed the announcement.
“This is fantastic news and a terrific vote of confidence in our industry which will also help Ireland achieve our 2020 renewable energy targets,” said CEO David Connolly.
“Wind is the cheapest renewable energy on the market and increasingly competitive with fossil fuels. In the coming years we hope policymakers and industry will work together to ensure we can offer the best possible electricity prices to deliver more deals like this.”