Amazon has signed a major corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) that will see it offtake renewable electricity from a Scottish offshore wind farm.
The agreement, struck with clean energy developer ENGIE, will see it increase its share of output from Ocean Winds’ Moray West offshore wind farm to a total of 473MW when the site becomes operational later this year.
It comes after a similar PPA was struck by Google - covering 100MW- in November of 2022.
Located in the outer Moray Firth, the 882MW wind farm is expected to be fully operational in early 2025 with an operational life of over 25 years.
Amazon said capacity from the site will support its goal of powering all operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025.
READ MORE: Scottish offshore wind farm to power global tech giant Google
Lindsay McQuade, Director of Energy, EMEA, Amazon Web Services (AWS), said: “Transitioning to carbon-free energy sources is one of the most impactful ways to lower carbon emissions, and is part of our Climate Pledge commitment to reach net zero carbon across our operations by 2040.
"We are on track to meet our ambitious goal of powering our global operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, and in 2022, 90% of electricity consumed by Amazon was attributable to renewable energy sources. Projects like Moray West will play a critical role in decarbonising Amazon’s operations and the UK grid, with this agreement demonstrating Amazon’s commitment to this ambition.”
Paulo Almirante, ENGIE Senior Executive Vice-President Renewables, Energy Management Activities, said: "“Moray West reflects our strategy to accelerate the transition towards a carbon-neutral world, through investing in renewable generation technologies.
"Furthermore, the innovative character of this CPPA shows that it is possible to create, together with Amazon, the conditions to achieve the UK objectives of renewables deployment and net zero economy. This deal strengthens ENGIE’s leadership position for CPPAs, through which ENGIE has sold a substantial capacity of renewable electricity generated by its wind and solar assets.”
Bautista Rodriguez, CEO at Ocean Winds, told Amazon: “I am proud that the collective efforts of the Moray West and Ocean Winds teams, working closely with colleagues in ENGIE, helped secure this important deal with Amazon, prior to the Financial Close of the project and as part of an innovative and unprecedented route to market for an offshore wind farm. The programme for delivery of the power for Amazon is ambitious but the project and sponsor boards have supported us to keep the project firmly on track.”
The Moray West project is located on the Smith Bank in the outer Moray Firth, approximately 22.5km southeast of the Caithness coastline, and is the second offshore wind project in the Outer Moray Firth, after Moray East.
It is expected to generate enough electricity to power up to 640,000 homes at full capacity.
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