Exclusive: Amazon expects to remain renewable energy's top buyer
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy speaks at the Climate Pledge Summit on Thursday. Photo: Gary He/courtesy Amazon
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy expects the company to remain the world's largest renewable energy-buying company for "several years to come," he said Thursday.
Why it matters: His comments signal that tech's outsized influence on green energy adoption will remain intact as AI reshapes demand for electricity and resources.
- The remarks came during a closed event in New York with Amazon's chief sustainability officer Kara Hurst in front of Climate Pledge partners.
- They also come less than a week after Microsoft announced a seismic 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation Energy, which will revive a nuclear reactor at Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island.
Jassy at one point said that "nuclear is another really important strategy" in meeting the company's climate goals.
- He gave a nod to Amazon's first nuclear energy agreement with Talen Energy to someday power AWS data center operations in Pennsylvania.
Context: Amazon's Climate Pledge initiative launched in 2019 as a way to rally companies, including Amazon, toward achieving carbon neutrality by 2040.
- "If you want to get to carbon-free, you're gonna have to invest in alternative energy," Jassy said.
- He pointed to the company's solar and wind investments, noting that Amazon has been looking more at using air instead of water to cool data centers.
By the numbers: Big Tech — led by Amazon and others including Meta, Google and Microsoft — has dominated clean energy deals over the past year as companies have raced to invest in AI infrastructure.
- Tech made up 62% of contracted renewable capacity from February 2023 to February 2024, according to S&P Global Commodity Insights.
- Second behind tech was telecom, which took a meager 8% share.
The big picture: Data centers that run AI are power-hungry.
- Today, asking AI to answer a question takes about 10 times the electricity required by a Google search, while generating content takes much more.
- Purchasing renewable energy "is simply good business" because it can be obtained cost-effectively and in a way that reduces future price uncertainty, Clark Butler, a contributing analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, has written.
