Amazon Rolls Out First Solar Energy Facility In China

Amazon.Com Inc. (AMZN) on Thursday announced its solar energy facility in China, representing the first out of five solar projects it is planning to set up around the world.

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The other facilities will be located in Australia, and the U.S. and will supply renewable energy to power data and fulfillment centers to support millions of customers globally.

Amazon’s first renewable energy project in China is a 100 megawatt (MW) solar project in Shandong. Once complete, the facility is expected to generate 128,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean energy annually, the company said.

The solar energy projects are part of Amazon’s Climate Pledge to reach 80% renewable energy by 2024 and 100% renewable energy by 2030 and potentially as early as 2025. To date, Amazon has 31 utility-scale wind and solar renewable energy projects and 60 solar rooftops located on fulfillment centers and sort centers around the globe. Together, these projects totaling over 2,900 MW of capacity will deliver more than 7.6 million MWh of renewable energy annually, enough to power 680,000 U.S. homes.

“We’re committed to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement 10 years early and reaching net zero carbon across Amazon by 2040,” said Kara Hurst, VP of Sustainability at Amazon. “These five new renewable energy projects are a critical part of our roadmap to reach this goal. In fact, we believe it is possible to reach 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the goals we announced last fall.”

Amazon’s second renewable energy project in Australia is a 105 MW solar project in New South Wales. This project will have the capacity to generate 250,000 MWh of clean energy each year, which is enough to power the equivalent of 40,000 average Australian homes.

“When complete, the five new Amazon renewable energy projects totaling 615 MW of installed capacity will supply approximately 1.2 million MWh of additional renewable energy to the company’s fulfillment network and Amazon Web Services (AWS) data centers, which power Amazon and millions of customers globally,” the company said.

Shares in Amazon rallied 48% in the past 2 months to $2,497.94 as of Wednesday’s close.

Turning now to Wall Street, analysts have a bullish outlook on the stock. Out of the 41 analysts covering the shares in the last three months, 38 have Buys and the rest are split between 2 Holds and 1 Sell adding up to a Strong Buy consensus. The $2,673.17 average price target implies a modest 7% upside potential in the stock in the coming 12 months. (See Amazon stock analysis on TipRanks).