North Sea wind farm to mostly supply Amazon with wind energy
Over 50 percent of the energy generated by a 759 megawatt windfarm under development 18.5 kilometers west of the coastal town of Egmond aan Zee will be used by Amazon. Shell and Eneco are constructing the wind farm in the Hollandse Kust (noord) development area with a target of being operational in 2023, the businesses said in a statement.
The power station will be built by the companies' joint venture, CrossWind. To mitigate dips and peaks in wind energy generation, the plant will also include a floating solar park, short-term battery storage of excess energy, and an electrolysis system to produce hydrogen.
Amazon snapped up 380 megawatts of the plant's capacity starting in 2024, enough power to supply roughly half a million households. Amazon will largely use the energy to power their web services. The online retail giant has set a target to completely transition to clean energy by 2025 and to be entirely emission-free by 2040.
Last year, Shell and Amazon also inked a deal to power international Amazon cargo planes with sustainable kerosine.