AMAZON has moved to burnish its green credentials by hailing a deal it has struck to buy power that will be generated by a Lanarkshire windfarm.
The online retail giant has agreed a corporate power purchase agreement (CPPA) regarding the Kennoxhead windfarm, which it said was the largest deal of its kind in the UK.
The 35-turbine wind farm is expected to be able to generate enough electricity to power around 125,000 homes.
The deal with Amazon should help underpin the profitability of Kennoxhead, which is being developed by private equity investors.
Amazon yesterday announced support for 26 renewable energy projects around the world in a development which the company said reflected its commitment to helping to fight climate change.
The company said the 26 projects made it the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.
It noted: “These projects will supply renewable energy for Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfillment centers, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers that support millions of customers globally. They will also help advance Amazon’s goal to be net-zero carbon emissions across its business by 2040.”
In October last year Amazon concluded a CPPA with ScottishPower in respect of a windfarm on the Kintyre peninsula.
ScottishPower struck a similar agreement with Tesco covering output from a windfarm in Caithness.
The company said at the time that the agreements covered the first UK onshore wind projects it would develop without a government-backed contract regarding the sale of electricity.
Kennoxhead is being developed by the UK arm of the Brookfield Renewable Partners investment business.
On the development’s website it says that Brookield UK is preparing for the construction of a new subsidy-free windfarm, near the village of Glespin in former coal mining country.
Amazon said the windfarm will be completed in two phases in 2022 and 2024.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here