Author: Daniel Demay, SeattlePI.com – Tuesday, November 1, 2016
SCURRY COUNTY, TEXAS, A new project announced by Amazon Wind Power aims to result in renewable energy that will power thousands of homes across America. The Amazon Wind Farm Texas in Scurry County is comprised of at least 100 wind turbines, with the diameter of each measuring more than twice the wingspan of a Boeing 747 plane. The wind turbines will generate an estimated 100,000 megawatt hours of wind energy every year, enough to power close to 90,000 homes in the United States. This latest development by the company, along with four other clean energy projects, will result in 2.6 million megawatt hours each year, powering more than 240,000 homes.
Amazon Wind Power
Amazon’s cloud computing business, Amazon Web Services (AWS), is finding solutions to powering its services blowing in the wind, as it were. The web company announced Monday plans for its fifth renewable energy project — a 189 megawatt wind farm in Hardin, Ohio, according to a news release. The project, called “Amazon Wind Farm US Central 2” (because the company is already spooling up another “central” wind farm in Ohio), will power data centers in the eastern U.S. and could produce enough electricity to power more than 50,000 homes annually when it comes online in December 2017.
AWS set out in 2014 to power its global infrastructure with 100 percent renewable energy, with plans to be at least 50 percent powered by renewable energy by the end of next year, the company wrote in the release.
“There are lots of things that go into making this a reality, including governments implementing policies that stimulate cost-effective renewable energy production, businesses that buy that energy, economical renewable projects from our development partners and utilities, as well as technological and operational innovation that drives greater efficiencies in our global infrastructure,” said Peter DeSantis, vice president of infrastructure at AWS, in the release. “We continue to push on all of these fronts to stay well ahead of our renewable energy goals.”
Whatever else AWS is about, the company is taking solid ownership of of the cloud computing business, with dominance in both software and infrastructure service portions of the public cloud market, according to new research from Synergy Research Group.
Though Amazon.com’s recent third-quarter earnings report fell short of analyst’s predictions, AWS was strong as that company continues to grow. The new wind farm will be built and operated in partnership with EverPower, a company that builds and operates large-scale utility wind farms across the U.S., Amazon said in the release.
Source: Seattle PI
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