After Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) took a step towards usage of green and renewable energy by partnering with Pattern Energy Group LP to build a wind farm in Benton County, Indiana. ‘Better late than never’ is the phrase that best describes Amazon’s decision in this context since this venture has materialized long after its counterparts’ initiatives.
Gary Cook, an analyst with Greenpeace, made an apt observation through his following comment –
“From what I have seen so far, this is a good step. They kind of quietly announced this commitment to using renewable energy back in November, so it is great to see them taking real steps to make good on that. They are starting a bit late compared to some of their peers, especially Google, who has been signing these contracts since 2010.”
Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s part of the pact entails providing funds to set up a wind farm boasting of 150-megawatt capacity and then buying its output for the next 13 years. The 500,000 mega-watt hours of renewable energy which the farm is likely to produce by 2016 will be used by Amazon to power its data centers which are the backbone of this online retail giant’s cloud service.
To present the company’s perspective, Jerry Hunter, vice-president of Web Services division of Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) released the following report –
“Amazon Web Services Wind Farm (Fowler Ridge) will bring a new source of clean energy to the electric grid, where we currently operate a large number of data centers and have ongoing expansion plans to support our growing customer base.”
Since the introduction of its cloud computing network, Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) has gained ownership of 11 cloud regions in different parts of the world and each of these is supported by multiple data centers, which comprise of servers to the tune of 50,000 to 80,000 per center. It is with the intention of operating these units with clean and renewable source of energy that Amazon has opted for this venture which is capable of catering for electricity requirements of as many as 46,000 average American homes.
This article has been written by Vinita Basu.
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