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Amazon announces renewable energy investment in Alberta

Last Updated Apr 19, 2021 at 7:48 am MDT

FILE - In this Oct. 1, 2020 file photo, an Amazon logo appears on an Amazon delivery van in Boston. Amazon wants to help President Joe Biden in trying to get 100 million COVID-19 vaccinations to Americans in his first 100 days in office. The CEO of Amazon’s Worldwide Consumer division, Dave Clark, said in a letter to Biden that the company has a deal with a licensed third-party occupational health care provider to give vaccines on-site at its facilities. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Amazon has announced its first renewable energy investment in Canada, and it’s coming to Alberta.

An 80 mega watt solar project is being planned in the County of Newell, east of Calgary.

Once complete, it will produce over 195,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of renewable energy, enough to power more than 18,000 Canadian homes for a year.

Amazon’s announcement of the deal is the largest known solar virtual power purchase agreement in Canada.

A release states this transaction expands Amazon’s leadership as a corporate buyer of renewable energy into Canada and is further evidence of the growth and viability of the Canadian renewables market.

The announcement is part of a global rollout of new projects by the company.

Amazon is also investing in nine new renewable energy projects in the U.S., Spain, Sweden, and the UK and will become Europe’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy.

Amazon is now the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy globally with 206 projects around the world, enough to power millions of homes a year.

The company said that with more than 2.5 GW of capacity in Europe, and 8.5 GW of renewable energy capacity globally, it is on a path to 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025.

Amazon and Global Optimism co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019, a commitment to reach the Paris Agreement 10 years early and be net-zero carbon by 2040.