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Retail giant Amazon will purchase more than 50pc of the energy from an offshore wind project in the Netherlands.
Amazon has committed to a number of green energy initiatives in the past few months, including a Galway windfarm to double its renewable output and providing free recycled energy to not-for-profit Heatworks in Dublin. Last December, the company became the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy.
In a blog post published yesterday (8 February), the company announced its latest step towards reaching a net-zero carbon operation by 2040. It is investing in a new offshore wind project in the Netherlands in what it called its “largest single renewable energy project yet”.
The Amazon-Shell KHN Offshore Wind Project is scheduled to become operational by 2024. Amazon had previously set a goal to reach 100pc renewable energy by 2030 but has now said it is on track to meet that target by 2025.
The Crosswind Consortium, a joint venture between Shell and Eneco, will build and operate the Hollandske Kust Noord windfarm. Eneco is a Netherlands-based energy company that was bought by a Mitsubishi-led consortium for €4.1bn in 2019.
The companies won the tender for the windfarm in July 2020 and said that once operational, it will generate at least 3.3 terawatt hours each year, which is enough renewable energy to power more than 1m Dutch households.
The windfarm will be located 18.5km off the coast of the Netherlands, near Egmond aan Zee. It will have a capacity of 759MW, which will supply the electrical grid powering the Netherlands without subsidies from the government. Amazon will purhcase more than 50pc – 380MW – of the project’s capacity. The company said it will use this energy to power its European facilities.
Proposed features for the new windfarm development include a floating solar park, short-term battery storage, optimally tuned turbines and ‘green hydrogen’, which is made by electrolysis and can be used as a further storage technique. Together, these measures could allow the companies to achieve a continuous power supply regardless of wind conditions.
