Amazon eyes nuclear option as AI boom forces web giant to look beyond wind and solar power

Amazon said soaring demand from AI will require it to look at carbon-free power sources such as nuclear, as the global web shipping behemoth reached a key renewable energy goal seven years early.

Amazon has emerged as the world’s largest corporate purchaser of wind and solar power since in 2019 setting a target to cover 100% of consumption at its global operations, including its data centre fleet, with renewable output by 2030.

But the company said the goalposts have shifted since the renewables target was set, and while it is sticking by an overall goal to become carbon neutral by 2040 “the path is changing in ways that no one quite anticipated even just a few years ago – driven largely by the increasing demand for generative AI.

“This will require different sources of energy than we originally projected, so we’ll need to be nimble and continue evolving our approach as we work toward net-zero carbon,” Amazon said in a statement.

Vice President of Worldwide Sustainability, Kara Hurst added that “we’ll continue investing in solar and wind projects, while also supporting other forms of carbon-free energy, like nuclear, battery storage, and emerging technologies that can help power our operations for decades to come”.

Generative AI has over the last year emerged as a game-changer for a global data centre sector that was already facing a massive step-up in green power demand from cloud computing.

Offshore wind, with its potential to supply gigawatt-scale power to corporate customers, could be another winner as demand soars.

Amazon said today that it already has 1.7GW of offshore wind output on its procurement books, and noted its ability “to generate significant amounts of energy due to the consistent flow of ocean breezes, [with] the potential to meet more than one-third of global power needs”.