Turbines will power Amazon’s expansion – but some say the output should be decarbonising UK homes.

When Amazon announced it was buying up half the output from one of Britain’s newest and biggest wind farms last week, it appeared like good news for Britain’s net zero ambitions.

The US giant committed to buying energy from Scotland’s Moray West wind farm before it was even built, bolstering its bid to power all operations with 100pc renewable energy by 2025. The Telegraph has the story.

However, amid the positivity, some industry sources claim Amazon and other global firms are embarking on an energy “power grab” that draws resources away from decarbonising Britain’s homes and businesses.

The deal completed by Amazon comes after Vodafone bought up the output from five solar farms last year, located in Norfolk, Nottinghamshire, Staffordshire, Buckinghamshire and Dorset.

Similar deals have also been struck by accountancy giant EY and Tesco, both of which have acquired energy from UK wind and solar firms.

Amazon, though, has gone further.

The tech company’s first Scottish wind farm, made up of 15 turbines on the Kintyre peninsula in Scotland, came online in 2021.

Moray West is the latest addition to its portfolio north of the border, where it is involved in 26 solar and renewable energy projects with a total capacity of around a gigawatt.

That is roughly the size of a large gas-fired power station and enough to power more than 600,000 UK homes.

This all means that Amazon’s operations, including both distribution and data centres, will become a lot greener.

Overall, the company’s carbon footprint is huge and its activities and products generated around 71 million tonnes of CO2 in 2022, although the bulk of that was produced by customers using its products.

Lindsay McQuade, director of energy at the company’s booming data centre division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), says: “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.”

Amazon is not alone in pursuing a corporate green energy strategy, as noted by Nathan Bennett, a director at trade body RenewableUK: “The market for renewable energy corporate power purchase agreements is growing at an extraordinary rate.

“Europe hit a record high last year with over 16 gigawatts of new renewables capacity, a 40pc increase on the year before.

“The appetite among companies is enormous, as they want to cut their electricity bills and support decarbonisation.”

For Amazon, much of that energy will be used not to decarbonise existing activities but to mitigate the company’s growth, especially that of AWS.

This business has 165 facilities around the world, each packed with power-hungry servers.

Read the full story here.