Amazon has signed Germany’s largest-ever power purchase agreement (PPA), agreeing to purchase 600 MW of carbon-free electricity from the Gennaker offshore wind farm in the German Baltic Sea. The agreement is intended to provide developer Skyborn Renewables with the financial certainty required to move forward with construction of the project.
The wind farm will be located approximately 15 kilometres off the coast of northeastern Germany and, once operational, is expected to generate enough electricity to power the equivalent of more than one million German households annually. The project forms part of Amazon’s wider strategy to support new carbon-free energy capacity through long-term power purchase agreements.
In Sweden, Amazon has also signed four PPAs for new wind energy projects, taking its total carbon-free energy capacity in the country to nearly 1 GW. The capacity is equivalent to the electricity needs of more than 350,000 Swedish households each year. The latest agreements bring Amazon’s total number of utility-scale wind energy projects in Sweden to nine.
Amazon said long-term PPAs can help renewable energy developers address financing challenges by providing greater certainty over future revenues. According to an independent Frontier Economics study commissioned by Amazon, projects supported by the company’s PPAs in Europe have added 16.5 GW of new carbon-free capacity over five years, nearly twice the capacity contracted by Amazon.
The company has committed billions of dollars toward more than 40 GW of carbon-free energy capacity across more than 700 projects in 28 countries. The investments are intended to support Amazon’s operations while adding new carbon-free generation to shared electricity grids.
