Amazon ‘surpassed Google and Facebook in renewable PPAs in 2020’

The tech giant has purchased over 7.5GW of renewable energy to date

Amazon became the world’s largest buyer of corporate renewable power purchase agreements (PPAs) last year, surpassing other tech leaders such as Google and Facebook.

That’s according to a new report by BloombergNEF (BNEF), which suggests the tech giant purchased 35 separate clean energy PPAs in 2020, reaching a total of 7.5GW of clean energy to date.

Google and Facebook have purchased 6.6GW and 5.9GW respectively.

BNEF estimates corporations around the world purchased a record of 23.7GW of renewable energy in 2020, up from 20.1GW in 2019.

The research finds the US was the largest market with a total of 11,9GW signed last year, while Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region almost tripled the growth of the corporate PPA volumes.

Kyle Harrison, BNEF Senior Associate and the Lead Author of the report, commented: “Corporations faced a wave of adversity in 2020, internal corporate functions were disrupted on the outset of the pandemic, and many companies saw revenues plummet as global economies buckled.

“Companies in all sectors, including hard-to-abate ones like oil and gas and mining, are feeling the pressure to purchase clean energy and decarbonise.”

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