Ørsted and Amazon sign Europe’s largest offshore wind corporate power purchase agreement

Thursday, December 10 2020

Amazon, the technology company based in Seattle, Washington, has signed a 10-year corporate power purchase agreement with Ørsted, the world leader in offshore wind, to offtake the output of 250MW from Ørsted’s planned 900MW Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm in Germany.

This CPPA will contribute to Amazon’s target of being 100% renewable by 2030 as part of the company’s goal to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.

Rasmus Errboe, Senior Vice President, Head of Region Continental Europe at Ørsted Offshore and responsible for Corporate PPAs, said: “We applaud Amazon’s leadership in corporate renewable energy investments which helps drive the green energy transformation forward. This agreement shows that Ørsted is well placed to help corporations with green ambitions act on the global climate challenge. The CPPA with Amazon on Borkum Riffgrund 3 will drive this breakthrough zero-subsidy project a step closer towards realization, where it will supply large amounts of clean electricity for Germany’s green transition. Germany remains an attractive market for Ørsted with its recent decision to have 40GW of installed offshore wind capacity by 2040.”

“We are proud to work with Ørsted on Amazon’s first offshore wind CPPA, Europe’s largest with 250MW of renewable energy,” said Nat Sahlstrom, Director, Amazon Energy. “The Borkum Riffgrund 3 offshore wind farm will help toward our goal of powering our operations with 100 percent renewable energy and reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.”

The 250MW CPPA, the largest ever for offshore wind in Europe, will help Amazon achieve their commitment to be net-zero carbon by 2040 as set out in their Climate Pledge. This is Ørsted’s second CPPA with Amazon, following the 2016 agreement on the 253MW Amazon Onshore Wind Farm Texas in Scurry County, Texas.

With this agreement with Amazon, Ørsted has over the past 12 months signed CPPAs for an accumulated capacity of 1,301MW across its global offshore wind portfolio.