Amazon has achieved its goal of powering its operations, including data centres, with 100% renewable energy, which it originally aimed to achieve by 2030.

The company has invested billions of dollars in over 500 solar and wind projects, which generate enough energy to power approximately 7.6m US homes. Kara Hurst, chief sustainability officer at Amazon, said: “Achieving this goal is an important milestone in our efforts to meet our Climate Pledge commitment of net-zero carbon by 2040. Looking ahead, we remain as committed as ever to getting there, but 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 towards net-zero carbon.”

In January, the US-based retail giant said that it has become the world's largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy for the fourth year in a row.

Amazon runs renewable energy projects in a wide range of countries, including India, Greece, South Africa, Japan and Indonesia. Significant projects include six offshore wind farms in Europe, such as Moray West in Scotland and East Anglia THREE in Suffolk, that combined produce 1.7GW of power.

In Japan, Amazon recently announced its first onshore wind farm, , a 33MW wind project in Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, and a 9.5MW standalone utility-scale solar farm in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Amazon will need to grapple with the energy challenges to arise from increased use of generative AI in the coming years. Speaking at the World Energy Congress in Rotterdam in April, Ann Mettler, vice-president for Europe at Breakthrough Energy, said: “In view of AI, existing technologies are not sufficient if you consider the enormous energy needs that are generated by AI and future iterations of artificial intelligence.”