A subsidiary of US online retail giant Amazon will back the construction of an 80MW solar farm in Virginia to power its data centre. The Amazon Solar Farm US East will be the largest in the state.
Subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a goal to source all of its power from renewable generation and has agreed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for the plant’s output. It is currently on around 25% and is targeting 40% by the end of 2016.
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Amazon Solar Farm US East is expected to start generating power by October 2016 at the earliest. The company already has a PPA with a wind farm in Indiana.
“We continue to make significant progress towards our long-term commitment to power the global AWS infrastructure with 100% renewable energy,” said Jerry Hunter, VP of infrastructure, AWS. “Amazon Solar Farm US East – the second PPA that will serve both existing and planned AWS data centres in the central and eastern US – has the added benefit of working to increase the availability of renewable energy in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” he added.
AWS will work with developer Community Energy. Community’s CEO, Brent Alderfer said: “We are pleased to work with AWS to build the largest solar farm in Virginia and one of the largest east of the Mississippi. This project, which wouldn’t have been possible without AWS’ leadership, helps accelerate the commercialisation and deployment of PV technologies at scale in Virginia.”
Amazon joins fellow tech giants and solar investors Google and Apple.
