Clearer Skies and Greener Clouds: Amazon Backing Solar Energy

The futurist aspect of the technology sector is not wholly equal across the board: an astounding amount of energy is needed not only to run online servers themselves but also to keep where the servers are stored frigid and dry with air conditioning. And this energy does not necessarily come from renewable energy resources. Some cloud-computing firms, such as Apple, Yahoo, or IBM, are attempting to remedy this problem by going green when it comes to energy consumption; others, such as the online retailer Amazon, have lagged behind in adoption of greener energy policies.

Nevertheless, that lag is about to change: Amazon recently announced its plans to back the construction of a 1,000-acre, 80-megawatt solar-energy farm – called Amazon Solar Farm US East – which will be the largest such farm in Virginia and one of the largest east of the Mississippi; the energy generated by the farm will be used to supply power to its Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers in the region. Indeed, Jerry Hunter, VP of infrastructure, AWS stated:

We continue to make significant progress towards our long-term commitment to power the global AWS infrastructure with 100% renewable energy. Amazon Solar Farm US East – the second [power purchase agreement (PPA)] that will serve both existing and planned AWS data centers in the central and eastern US – has the added benefit of working to increase the availability of renewable energy in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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With this announcement, Amazon joins the trend of other cloud-computing firms to back the renewable energy sector. However, the announcement comes on the tail-end of nineteen of its AWS users, including the Huffington Post and Tumblr, raising the issue of what kind of energy sources are powering its cloud-computing data centers. Similarly, the announcement also may come as a result of criticism lobbied against Amazon by Greenpeace, an environmental advocacy group, that the retailer runs its servers on non-renewable energy, like coal-burning power plants, and that the company lacks transparency with regard to its renewable energy plans.

Slated for completion by 2016, the construction of Amazon Solar Farm US East is result of a partnership between Amazon and Community Energy, the company which has been working for approximately four years to get approval for the solar farm before Amazon committed to the project. With the completion of the solar farm, Amazon will be able to bump up the percentage of AWS’s energy consumption from renewable sources from the current 25% to 40%. While this won’t necessarily put Amazon on equal to its competitors, it is a good start and, hopefully, will serve as a good example to other technology companies.