Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

As the world continues to recover from the COVID-19 global pandemic, there were many lessons learned throughout that time. While the pandemic made us appreciate life a lot more, it also showed us the importance of being connected and ensuring we have the right technologies in place for business continuity.

With more technologies in play, ensuring there is enough power to support these technologies becomes crucial as well. There is no denying the ongoing demand for more energy. But how much energy can we produce without causing more environmental impact on the planet?

To address these concerns, organisations around the world are now setting sustainable development goals. From large enterprises to SMEs, reducing the carbon footprint is fast becoming a key goal for them.

Amazon recently announced its first renewable energy project in Singapore which is also their fifth in the Asia Pacific, as part of its commitment to invest in global solar and wind projects globally. This project will see Amazon working with Sunseap Group, a solar energy provider, in a long-term agreement to export 62 megawatts (MW) of clean energy to the Singapore electricity grids. It is expected to generate 80,000-megawatt hours (MWh) of clean energy annually, which is equivalent to powering more than 10,000 homes in Singapore.

The solar project will be made up of a series of solar panels mounted on a ground system. When completed in 2022, the project will be among the largest aggregated movable solar systems designed and installed in Singapore.

In 2020, Amazon announced it is the largest-ever corporate purchaser of renewable energy. This project in Singapore builds on that momentum and will supply renewable energy for Amazon offices, fulfilment centres and AWS data centres that support millions of customers globally.

It will help advance Amazon’s goal under The Climate Pledge to reach net-zero carbon emissions across its business by 2040. Part of that commitment is powering its operations and infrastructures with 100% renewable energy by 2030, a goal that Amazon is on the path to reach five years earlier by 2025.

Committed to Renewable Energy

In an interview with Disruptive Tech Asean, Conor McNamara, Managing Director, AWS ASEAN, said, “Amazon and AWS have been investing and growing in Singapore for more than a decade and these investments affirm our commitment to creating a sustainable future for our company as well as the communities in which we operate. We are committed to running the business in the most environmentally friendly way possible and our scale allows us to achieve higher resource utilisation and energy efficiency than the typical on-premises data centre”.

Conor added that since 2019, AWS have announced three wind and solar projects in Australia and one solar project in China. Alongside the Singapore project, these projects contribute approximately 411 MW of installed capacity and will supply more than 900,000 MWh of additional renewable energy to local electricity grids.

This project supplies renewable energy for fulfilment centres and AWS data centres that support millions of customers globally, including customers across ASEAN. The project will deliver clean energy into the grid through Power Purchase Agreements at no cost to consumers in any of these countries.

“Our Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the Sunseap JTC SolarLand Project also supports Singapore’s bold vision outlined in the Singapore Green Plan 2030, a ten-year plan with a comprehensive sustainable development agenda. Through this project, we are playing our part to contribute to the advancement of Singapore’s goal of quadrupling its solar capacity to 1.5 gigawatt-peak by 2025”.

Conor explained that these commitments also align with the ASEAN government’s five-year sustainability plan under the second phase of the ASEAN Plan of Action for Energy Cooperation (APAEC) 2021-2025. Under this plan, ASEAN energy ministers agreed to set a target of a 23% share of renewable energy in total primary energy supply in the region, and 25% in ASEAN installed power capacity by 2025.

There is no denying that Amazon is leading the technology for renewable energy with 188 solar and wind projects worldwide. To achieve their goals under The Climate Pledge, Amazon is committed to global investment in renewable energy generation to reduce carbon emissions from its worldwide operations.

Amazon aims to meet its commitment to 100% renewable energy by 2030 by improving the energy efficiency of its operations and adding new renewable energy to the electric grids where they operate across the world. Amazon partners with other companies, utilities, policymakers and regulators to accelerate plans and policies that increase clean energy on the grids that serve Amazon and their customers. Their renewable energy approach employs five specific strategies to meet the renewable energy goals:

• Energy efficiency: Innovate to continuously increase the energy efficiency of our operations.
• Off-site renewable projects: Invest in new, utility-scale renewable energy projects.
• On-site solar: Deploy rooftop solar systems on buildings we operate.
• Site energy contracts: Pursue new renewable projects through competitive site energy contracts.
• Policy engagement: Support public policy that advances access to and the expansion of clean energy for Amazon and our customers.

“We believe we can use our size and scale to make a difference and spur innovation in new technologies to support a low-carbon economy. Ultimately, solving the world’s environmental and sustainability challenges is a task that no single organisation can take on alone, but [by] working together, we can make a significant impact”, said Conor.

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