Jeff Bezos atop a wind farm breaking it in with a bottle of bubbly is pretty intense. Amazon’s founder made his way up one of more than 100 new wind turbines in Texas celebrating a major renewable energy project coming online.
The 253-megawatt “Amazon Wind Farm Texas” in Scurry County is part Amazon’s long-term goal to reach 100% renewable energy. As of the end of 2016, the company was beyond 40% – and expects to break 50% before the end of 2017.
This is Amazon’s largest wind farm to date. They also own four other large wind farms – 150MW, 208MW, 100MW and 189MW. These projects are located in Indiana, Ohio and North Carolina.
This plant brought the company to over 1,200MW of total renewable energy installed – making them the second largest renewable energy customer in the USA. Google leads at around 1,800MW installed, and Apple is just behind Amazon. The US Defense Department is in fourth place.
Amazon partnered with Lincoln Clean Energy on the project. Lincoln managed the construction of the plant, and will own and operate the facility. Amazon has entered into a long-term agreement to purchase 90% of the facility’s output.
This farm will generate 1,000,000MWh/year. An average US residence uses about 10MWh/year. A single turbine can power 3,000 homes.
The turbines, model ‘GE’s 2.3-116’, are about 300 feet tall, and the blades – tip to tip – are as wide as a Boeing Jet. Watching the video zoom out you get a bit more feel for the immensity of the units.
Fun day christening Amazon’s latest wind farm. #RenewableEnergy pic.twitter.com/cTxeXdsFop
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) October 19, 2017
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