Amazon on Wednesday announced the setting up of its first solar farm in India. The e-commerce major will be setting up three solar power projects with a capacity of 420 megawatt (MW).
“In the Asia-Pacific region, Amazon is announcing the company’s first three large-scale projects in India. All three are solar projects in Rajasthan, representing 420 MW of clean energy capacity. Amazon is scaling fast in India, and these first investments play a critical role in reducing our carbon emissions in the country,” Amazon said in a statement.
Power purchase agreement
As part of Amazon’s India plans, Amp Energy India, a renewable energy producer, has signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) to sell TE to Amazon from a 100 MW solar power plant in Rajasthan.
The plant will be fully operational by the end of 2023 and located in Bhadla, Rajasthan. Amp is also developing a 1 gigawatt (GW) of utility scale projects. This solar plant will help mitigate 1,13,645 tonnes of harmful CO2 emissions that would have otherwise been released through conventional power plants and hence would have a positive effect on the environment.
Besides Amp Energy, Amazon has also signed a pact with ReNew Power for a 210 MW project, and another with Brookfield Renewable for a 110 MW project.
Combined, these solar farms have the capacity to generate 1,076,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of renewable energy per year, enough to power over 360,000 average-sized households in New Delhi annually.
Availability and affordability
Amazon’s solar projects in Rajasthan will help to increase the availability and affordability of renewable energy in India, by enabling new capacity beyond what is available on the grid today.
Additionally, Amazon has announced 23 new solar rooftop projects on its fulfillment centers across 14 cities in India, which have the capacity to generate an additional 4.09 MW of renewable energy. This brings the total number of solar rooftop projects in India to 41 with 19.7 MW of renewable energy capacity, which will contribute to powering Amazon’s fulfillment network in India.