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Amazon Focuses on Carbon Neutrality With 5 New Solar Projects

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Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) is leaving no stone unturned to achieve its carbon neutrality goals. This is evident from its continuous investments in renewable energy projects.

The company’s latest announcement of five new utility-scale solar projects is a testament to the same.

Notably, these projects will be based in the United States, China and Australia, which are equipped with a total of 615 megawatt (MW), will generate around 1.2 million megawatt hours (MWh).

The renewable capacity produced by the new projects will be utilized in supplying energy to the AWS data centers and Amazon’s fulfillment centres.

We believe the latest move bodes well for the company’s goal of utilizing 80% and 100% renewable energy by 2024 and 2030, respectively.

Amazon has been shifting focus from fossil fuels to clean energy for quite some time now. The shift to clean energy sources is anticipated to reduce costs in the near term, which is a major positive. Additionally, the company can generate healthy returns from strengthening solar and wind investments as there are several associated tax incentives.
 

Amazon’s Carbon Neutrality Drive

The latest move will reduce Amazon’s carbon footprint, which in turn will aid its commitment to save environment by leveraging renewable energy. This is in sync with the company’s aim to reach net zero carbon by 2040.

We note that Amazon’s China project that will be located in Shandong is a 100 MW one, which is likely to produce 128k MWh of clean energy annually.

Further, the new Australian project, which will be located in northern New South Wales, is a 105 MW solar project. It is likely to produce 250k MWh of clean energy annually.

Meanwhile, the new 80 MW and 200 MW U.S. projects will be located in Ohio. Additionally, the new 130 MW U.S. project in Virginia marks the company’s 12th renewable energy project in the state.

Notably, these projects reflect Amazon’s Climate Pledge commitment.

Carbon Neutrality Gaining Steam

Apart from Amazon, tech giants like Alphabet (GOOGL - Free Report) , Microsoft (MSFT - Free Report) and Apple (AAPL - Free Report) are also taking initiatives to adopt alternative energy sources to lower overall carbon emissions and cut energy bills substantially.

Google’s aggressive three-fold strategy, which includes energy efficiency, renewable energy procurement and carbon offsets, is a testament to its commitment to carbon neutrality.

Microsoft is also making every effort to become carbon negative by 2030. It inked two power purchase agreements with EDP Renewables North America LLC to work on a wind energy project based out of Paulding County, OH.

Meanwhile, Apple is looking for ways to develop a carbon-free project soon.

Nevertheless, Amazon strengthening carbon neutrality initiatives remain noteworthy. Apart from the latest move, the e-commerce giant recently announced four new renewable projects in Australia, Spain, Sweden, and the United States, which are expected to generate around 300 megawatt and 840k MWh of extra clean energy and renewable capacity.

Moreover, the company’s purchase order for 100,000 electric delivery trucks from Rivian remains a major positive. These emission-free vehicles will reduce carbon footprint further.

The total number of launched utility-scale wind and solar renewable energy projects of Amazon stands at 31 to date. Moreover, the total number of installed solar rooftops on fulfillment centers and sort centers stands at 60.

Further, the company has 91 renewable energy projects globally.

All these strong endeavors are expected to keep the company’s renewable energy game a step ahead of its peers.

Currently, Amazon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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