Amazon Leads In Record Year For Corporate Clean Energy Purchases

These days, it’s no longer a question of whether corporations will purchase more and more clean energy every year. Now, it’s a question of how much.

In 2021, global corporate purchases of clean power hit a record high for the sixth year in a row. Leading the pack? Amazon, followed closely by fellow Big Tech brethren Microsoft and Meta.

Big Tech Beefs Up

Overall, corporations purchased a record 31.1 gigawatts of clean power capacity last year, according to a new report by BloombergNEF, the commodities research arm of the news giant. For reference, that figure marks a 24% year-over-year increase and is good for 10% of all renewable energy capacity added worldwide last year, according to the report. In practical terms, it’s roughly equal to a third of California’s generation capacity.

Amazon accounted for a staggering amount all on its own:

• The e-commerce giant announced 44 offsite power purchase agreements last year, totaling 6.2 gigawatts of clean energy. For the math averse, that’s roughly 20% of all corporate clean power purchases in 2021.
• Of that 6.2 gigawatts, roughly 4.8 came from solar while about 1.4 comes from wind energy. In total, Amazon now has a total green energy capacity of 13.9 gigawatts, the 12th largest clean energy profile among all companies.

Just behind Amazon is Microsoft, with 6.1 gigawatts of clean energy purchased, while Meta, with 2.2 gigawatts purchased, rounds out the top three. Google, Nestle, and Target all landed in the top 10.

Global Green Breakdown: US companies led the world with green energy purchases, at 17 gigawatts. Europe, meanwhile, added 8.7 gigawatts and Asia added just 2. Of course, like everything else it does, Amazon’s green energy purchases reached across the entire world, with its 44 offsite power purchase agreements dotting nine different countries.