Amazon to create two wind parks and four more solar plants in Castilla y León

AMAZON is to build two wind farms and four solar plants in Castilla y León that will have a renewable capacity of 156 megawatts (MW).

This new initiative from the company joins three other solar projects that it had already announced in the Community. As a result, they will have a total of nine combined projects on the territory, with a renewable capacity of 224 MW.

Across Spain, Amazon will eventually have 17 solar plants. Six of these are in Castilla-La Mancha, four in Castilla y León (plus the three projects announced this Monday), four in Valencia, one in Andalucia, and another one in each of Aragon and Extremadura.

How much power will these plants generate?

At the moment it does not specify their locations due to ‘confidentiality agreements’. The four solar plants will have a capacity of 32, 32, 25 and 25 MW respectively, while the two wind projects will have a capacity of 17 and 25 MW.

These projects in Castilla y León are part of the 24 renewable energy projects announced across Spain on Monday, October 23,  of which five will be solar rooftop installations. They will have a combined renewable capacity that amounts to 794 MW.

This announcement brings the company’s total in Spain to 37 wind and solar projects generating 2.3 GW, 30 of which are solar rooftop installations, as reported by Diario de Castilla y León.

The company predicted that when all these projects were operational, the capacity to produce renewable energy would be equivalent to the electricity consumption of more than 1.3 million Spanish households each year.

How many wind and solar projects does Amazon have in Europe?

According to a statement from the American company, Amazon will become the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Spain.

Lindsay McQuade, Amazon’s EMEA Energy Director explained: ‘With more than 160 wind and solar projects in Europe, at Amazon, we are helping to provide new sources of clean energy to local grids, creating jobs and supporting Spanish companies as we move to have our operations powered by energy 100 per cent renewable by 2025’.

The solar and wind installations promoted by Amazon in Spanish territory have generated an investment of around €670 million.

Furthermore, these renewable energy projects have contributed €243 million to the Spanish GDP, according to the company itself. These projects, in addition to the economic investment, have contributed to creating 1,800 full-time jobs.

What have these projects contributed to Europe?

At the European level, these projects have generated, between 2014 and 2022, an investment of €2.4 billion and have contributed €723 million to the GDP.

Last year alone, 3,900 full-time jobs were created across Europe. ‘Corporate investment is an important catalyst to drive the transition towards a clean energy future, and we look forward to continuing to work with governments, local communities, and energy providers across Europe to supply more renewable energy to local grids’, said McQuade.

These data, as revealed by Amazon, have been obtained through the economic model designed by the company itself through the guidelines of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory of the US Department of Energy. It is a project endorsed by Independent Oxford Economics.

In addition to these six new projects in Castilla y León and the 11 remaining solar plants in Spain, Amazon also announced new solar roofs for five countries in Europe: Belgium, France, Italy and the United Kingdom.

The next investments do not stop there, because another five countries will have new solar and wind projects: Finland, Germany, Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom.