Amazon is investing big in Alberta.
The global tech giant announced on Thursday that its first wind farm in Canada is going to be built in that province, about 130 km south of Calgary, in Vulcan County.
The newly announced project is a 495-megawatt capacity wind farm that’ll be constructed in partnership with Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and is anticipated to create approximately 250 full-time jobs during construction.
Once it’s operational, the wind farm will produce enough clean energy to power more than 240,000 homes in Alberta, according to CIP.
“We’re proud to support new solar and wind projects in Canada, which will help power our next data center Region in Calgary, Alberta, and provide clean energy to local communities where our customers live and work,” Nat Sahlstrom, Amazon Web Services’ head of energy, water, and sustainability, said in a statement.
“These projects are also helping create jobs, support local businesses, and boost the local tax base.”
Amazon estimates that its renewable energy projects have generated around $478 million in local economic investment for Canadian communities.
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Despite a provincial-implemented seven-month pause on approving renewable energy projects, the government said this project will go ahead.
“This announcement shows continued confidence in Alberta as a place to invest in renewables,” Alberta’s minister of affordability and utilities, Nathan Neudorf, told Daily Hive Urbanized.
“Construction on this Buffalo Plains wind farm near Lomond began in 2022 and will be operational in December 2024.”
The project is part of Amazon’s commitment to reach net-zero carbon and powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025 — five years ahead of the initial target of 2030.
It’s the Seattle-based tech giant’s fourth renewable energy project in Canada and follows the recent opening of the Travers Solar Project — a $700 million solar farm built in the same region that is the largest of its kind ever constructed in Canada.
The projects will generate more than 2.3 million megawatt hours of clean energy, which is enough to power 1.69 million Canadian homes.
Amazon previously invested in a 60 mega-watt solar farm in Newell County, Alberta, and a rooftop solar energy project at an Amazon delivery station in Nisku, Alberta.
All of those and the recently announced wind farm are expected to help power Amazon’s local operations in Alberta, including Amazon Web Services data centers and Amazon fulfilment centers, sortation centers and delivery stations, while also providing new sources of clean power to local communities where the projects are located.
In October, the company announced the addition of 39 renewable energy projects in Europe.
Amazon has 479 wind and solar projects globally to date.
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