Amazon has announced that its largest wind farm yet—Amazon Wind Farm Texas—is now up and running, adding more than 1,000,000 MWh of clean energy to the grid each year. Amazon has launched 18 wind and solar projects across the U.S., with over 35 more to come. Together, these projects will generate enough clean energy to power over 330,000 homes annually. These projects also support hundreds of jobs and provide tens of millions of dollars of investment in local communities across the country.
Amazon Wind Farm Texas includes more than 100 turbines – each over 300 feet tall with a rotor diameter more than twice the wingspan of a Boeing 787. Amazon Wind Farm Texas is built, owned, and operated by Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE), an I Squared Capital portfolio company and a leading developer of wind and solar projects across the U.S. Amazon, LCE, and local officials and residents celebrated the grand opening of the wind farm with a BBQ event onsite. To thank and support the local community, Amazon is donating $50,000 to the Snyder Education Foundation to provide students and teachers with STEM learning opportunities.
“Investing in renewable energy is a win-win-win-win – it’s right for our customers, our communities, our business, and our planet,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s Worldwide Director of Sustainability. “We now have 18 wind and solar projects across the U.S. with more than 35 projects to come. These are important steps toward reaching our long-term goal to power our global infrastructure using 100% renewable energy. We’d like to thank the leaders at LCE, the Scurry County community, and our partners across the country who are helping us continue to bring new renewable energy online.”
“I applaud Amazon’s leadership in supporting renewable power. Corporations like Amazon have become a major force in the transition to renewable power, and with their involvement, we look forward to producing power in Scurry County for years to come,” said Declan Flanagan, founder and CEO of LCE.
“Scurry County has long been a hub for the energy industry and we’re excited to expand our commitment to wind power generation with Amazon and LCE. The wind industry has boosted the Texas economy with jobs, revenue to area landowners, and property taxes that support our schools,” said Scurry County Judge Ricky Fritz.
In addition to its investment in renewable energy, Amazon’s commitment to sustainability includes innovations like Frustration-Free Packaging programs, which eliminated more than 55,000 tons of packaging last year, the District Energy system at its HQ in Seattle that heats more than 3 million square feet of office space using recycled heat from a nearby non-Amazon data center, and more.
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, and Alexa are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.
Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE) is a leading developer of U.S. wind and solar projects with offices in Chicago, IL and Austin, TX. Since 2011, LCE has developed over 1,500 megawatts of renewable power projects in California, New Jersey, and Texas. LCE is a portfolio company of I Squared Capital and expects to deploy up to $250 million in equity investments through 2018.
Photo: Courtesy of Amazon.com, Inc
