Amazon Announces First Utility-Scale Renewable Energy Projects in India

Amazon has announced its first utility-scale renewable energy projects in India – three solar farms located in the state of Rajasthan.

These include a 210 MW project by India-based developer ReNew Power, a 100 MW project by local developer Amp Energy India, and a 110 MW project by Brookfield Renewable. These solar farms have a combined capacity of 1,076,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy per year, which is enough to power more than 360,000 average-sized residences in New Delhi. Amazon’s solar projects in Rajasthan will contribute to the increased availability and affordability of renewable energy in India by enabling new capacity beyond what is currently available on the grid. Amazon also launched 23 new solar rooftop projects on its fulfillment sites in 14 cities across India, with a total capacity of 4.09 MW of renewable energy. This brings the total number of solar rooftop projects in India to 41 with 19.7 MW of renewable energy capacity, which will contribute to powering Amazon’s fulfilment network in India.

Dinesh Dayanand Jagdale, Joint Secretary for the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), said in a statement that they are glad to see how the government’s policy reforms over the last several years have enabled the use of renewable energy by industry, offering a method to accomplish their sustainability goals. Corporate offtakers of renewable energy, such as Amazon, are becoming an increasingly major source of financing for renewable energy projects across India. These large-scale projects, such as the ones announced today, bring huge amounts of new renewable power to the grid, benefiting all Indian consumers. They have been collaborating with industry to creatively unlock more such private sector investments in renewable energy projects. They expect that the policy reforms adopted in India to enable this would serve as a global example for governments trying to attract corporate renewable energy investments in order to hasten their transition to a greener energy future.

Amazon has executed more than 500 MW of renewable energy PPAs with Brookfield globally, and now 110 MW in India. Nawal Saini, Managing Director, Renewable Power and Transition, Brookfield said, “We are pleased to work with Amazon on their journey towards becoming 100% renewable energy powered. The new Bikaner solar park development is being undertaken as a part of the Brookfield Global Transition Fund, our inaugural impact fund focusing on investments that accelerate the global transition to a net-zero carbon economy. We look forward to partnering with governments and corporates to accelerate their sustainability and decarbonization goals.”

Abhinav Singh, Director – Customer Fulfilment, Supply Chain and Global Specialty Fulfilment, Amazon India, said in a statement that Amazon has worked hard to collaborate and engage government and industry stakeholders in India on corporate power purchase agreements for renewable energy. In addition to these PPAs, their efforts include training developers and other buyers on how to structure these agreements for mutual benefit, facilitating government dialogues with industry groups to emphasize the importance of corporate buyers, and collaborating with local energy providers who want to reach new customers. Amazon is dedicated to assisting in the expansion of corporate renewable energy procurement choices in the country, bringing green employment and investments to more parts of India.

Amazon also announced that it is expanding its renewable energy portfolio globally, with an additional 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy capacity across 71 new renewable energy projects. This includes the company’s first renewable energy project in South America – a solar farm in Brazil – and its first solar farm in Poland. Once fully operational, Amazon’s global renewable energy portfolio will generate 50,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of clean energy, which is the equivalent amount of electricity needed to power 4.6 million U.S. homes each year.

Amazon now owns 379 renewable energy projects in 21 countries, including 154 wind and solar farms and 225 rooftop solar projects, totaling 18.5 GW of renewable energy capacity. In the Asia-Pacific area, the company now has 57 renewable energy projects. By the end of 2021, the company’s use of renewable energy would have reached 85 percent across the board.