As our society relies on technology more than ever, from consumer electronics to large-scale infrastructure in both public and private sectors, global energy demands are continuing to grow. At Amazon, we’re working to meet the future energy demands of our customers and our business while remaining committed to our Climate Pledge to become net-zero carbon by 2040. We know the path forward is changing, and our work to decarbonize our operations won’t be linear, so we’re constantly experimenting, learning, and evolving.
Here are five ways Amazon is innovating to ensure our energy needs are met with sustainability and efficiency in mind:
- Matching 100% of the electricity consumed by our operations with renewable energy
Amazon achieved our goal to match all of the electricity consumed by our operations with 100% renewable energy. We originally pledged to reach this goal in 2030, and achieved it seven years early in 2023. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, we’ve invested in more than 600+ solar and wind projects around the world, representing more than 34 gigawatts (GW) of new energy capacity once operational. Once all of these projects become operational, they’re expected to produce enough energy to power more than 8.3 million average U.S. homes each year. We’ve also been the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy every year since 2020.
Looking ahead, increasing energy demands—including those driven by generative AI—will require us to add more sources of carbon-free energy, including nuclear, offshore wind, green hydrogen, and more. In addition, Amazon’s $2 billion Climate Pledge Fund is investing in the next generation of emerging low-carbon energy technologies, including green ammonia, renewable transportation fuels, portable battery storage, and other innovations that can help power the future energy needs of our business and the transition to a lower-carbon economy.
- Advocating for grid modernization
In most cases, when we invest in new carbon-free energy projects like wind and solar farms, that energy goes into the public power grids in those areas—meaning those communities are also benefitting. We want electric grids where we operate to be net-zero carbon for everyone. But right now, grids across the country are limited in how much energy they can accept. While we’re working with utilities and energy companies to fast-forward new solar, wind, and other carbon-free energy projects to meet rising demand, the grid also needs to be modernized so it can handle that demand. More than 70% of the U.S. grid is 25 years old or older, and across the United States, there are currently more than 2.6 million megawatts (MW) of renewable energy and storage projects waiting to come online—nearly double the current amount of U.S. generation capacity, or enough carbon-free energy to power 63.3 million US homes. To help address this, Amazon teams are engaging with energy regulators and other officials at the federal and state levels to help support grid modernization, remove permitting obstacles, and deploy grid-enhancing technologies.
We’re also working with grid operators and utilities to help ensure grid modernization is funded in the markets where we do business. Like all ratepayers, Amazon pays transmission costs for the energy we use, and those rates are established by utility regulators. Those costs help cover infrastructure upgrades and other grid modernization needs required to support the needs of all energy users.
- Deploying renewable energy where it’s needed most
To have the biggest impact, we focus most of our investments on the grids where our operations are concentrated, as well as regions where the existing grid is most carbon intensive. For example, we have a large AWS presence in Oregon, so we’re working with utility company Umatilla Electric to procure new sources of renewable energy, such as electricity purchased from a local wind farm, to help increase the amount of renewable energy to the local grid.
We also make a point to invest in renewables projects in places that otherwise rely heavily on fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas to power their grids, such as India, Poland, and the southeastern U.S. To support this effort, Amazon cofounded the Emissions First Partnership, a coalition of companies committed to modernizing the greenhouse gas accounting standards for the power sector, which will encourage companies to invest in renewable and carbon-free energy in more carbon-intensive grids. Both of these approaches help reduce energy-related emissions and match the electricity used by our operations with renewable energy, a win-win for people and the planet.
- Taking steps to run our data centers more efficiently
We’re constantly reevaluating how our data centers operate and determining ways to help them run on less energy and be more efficient. And as the world scales our use of AI, it's important to also minimize its environmental footprint. A new study by Accenture shows that an effective way to do that is by moving IT workloads from on-premises infrastructure to AWS data centers around the globe. The research estimates AWS’s infrastructure is up to 4.1 times more efficient than on-premises, and when workloads are optimized on AWS, the associated carbon footprint can be reduced by up to 99%. This type of impact is possible by AWS optimizing our data center design, investing in purpose-built chips, and innovating with new cooling technologies. For example, we’ve taken steps to design our data centers to use natural air flow to lower server temperatures, which can heat up while in use. This allows us to use less air conditioning when possible. We’ve also designed our AWS machine learning chips, which power millions of workloads daily, to be more energy efficient. For example, AWS’s Graviton processor delivers high performance with high levels of energy efficiency. Graviton4 provides up to 30% better computing performance, 50% more cores, and 75% more memory bandwidth than current-generation Graviton3 processors, delivering the best price performance and energy efficiency for a broad range of workloads running on Amazon EC2. We’re also keeping technologies in use longer by increasing the lifespan of our servers from five to six years.
- Incorporating sustainability practices into the design and construction of our buildings
We’re working to design our corporate buildings in ways that support the transition to net-zero carbon, including by constructing new buildings using low-carbon concrete and electrified HVAC systems. One of our newest Same-Day fulfillment centers in California is set to make history as the world’s first fulfillment facility to achieve Zero Carbon Certification status. The electricity used by our HQ2 headquarters is matched with 100% renewable energy from a local solar farm and has achieved the highest level of LEED green building certification. We’ve also installed energy-efficient lighting, low-flow water fixtures, and implemented recycling and composting in our corporate offices. In Europe and in the U.S., our data centers are transitioning to renewable diesel in our generators, which can result in as much as 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions over the fuel’s life cycle compared to diesel.
Amazon is continuing to work toward transitioning our business and our society to a cleaner energy future.
