Amazon has unveiled a new 198-megawatt (MW) wind farm located in Osmanabad, Maharashtra, India. This addition marks Amazon’s 50th wind and solar project in India, pushing the company’s renewable energy capacity past 1.1 gigawatts (GW).
Between 2014 and 2022, Amazon’s wind and solar farms played a significant role in generating an estimated $349 Mn (INR 2,885 Cr) in economic investment for Indian communities.
Additionally, these projects contributed around $87 Mn (INR 719 Cr) to the country’s total gross domestic product (GDP) and provided support for over 20,600 local full-time equivalent jobs in 2022, according to a newly developed economic model by Amazon.
The wind farm in Osmanabad is the seventh utility-scale renewable energy project announced by Amazon in India within the past year. Additionally, the company has introduced a total of 43 rooftop solar projects to supply power to local Amazon facilities. Once all 50 projects become operational, they are projected to generate enough energy to power over 1.1 Mn homes in New Delhi annually, while also providing clean energy for Amazon’s data centres, logistics facilities, physical stores, and corporate offices.
In recent years, Amazon has worked closely with policymakers, regulators, and a wide array of industry stakeholders to expand corporate renewable energy procurement opportunities in India. This collaborative effort has brought these new projects to fruition and has paved the way for others to scale up their renewable energy initiatives.
In addition to being the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy globally — a position that Amazon has held since 2020 — Amazon is also the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in India, according to publicly available data and Bloomberg New Energy Finance.
Amid a global surge in emphasis on clean energy, India is no exception, with growing focus on electric vehicle adoption, plastic bans, carbon capture, and energy efficiency, to name a few. According to The Insight Partners, the Indian renewable energy sector is currently worth around $17 Bn and has been growing at a consistent annual rate of 15%.
Importantly, the proportion of renewable energy in India’s overall power capacity jumped to 23% in 2018, a substantial increase from approximately 13% in 2015.
In 2020, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) launched the “Industry and Investors’ Facilitation Centre” to address the issues faced by investors and boost investment in clean energy.
In the recent times India has seen launch of several cleantech startups that have come up with out-of-the-box solutions to contribute to India’s clean energy goals. Some of these startups include, 75F, Ace Green Recycling, CleanMax Enviro Energy Solutions, GPS Renewables, ION Energy, and more.
Some of the recent funding announcements in this space include — Chennai-based Proklean Technologies securing $4 Mn in a strategic funding round from the Raintree Family Office, and Newtrace raising $5.65 Mn from Sequoia Capital India and Aavishkaar Capital.
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