On Wednesday, US retail conglomerate Amazon announced a "major new" power purchase agreement (PPA) with renewable energy company Iberdrola, with the company procuring 159MW from the UK-based East Anglia THREE offshore wind farm.

The renewable offtake deal will generate more than 77,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of clean power each year. Due to become operational in 2026, East Anglia THREE is expected to produce enough clean energy to power more than 1.3 million UK homes, and is set to become the world's second-largest offshore wind farm.

The deal is the latest in a series of PPAs the retailer has signed with Iberdrola for projects across Germany, the US, and elsewhere in Britain. In total, Amazon has contracted 54,000GWh of renewable energy from the Spanish renewable energy giant, the company reports.

In January this year, Amazon announced that it had become the world's largest corporate purchaser of renewable power for the fourth year in a row, citing data from Bloomberg NEF. The company claims it is already five years ahead of its initial goal of powering 100% of its operational electricity with renewables by 2030, with new capacity from East Anglia THREE furthering this ambition. Amazon is aiming for net-zero emissions across its operations by 2040.

Emissions from Amazon's own operations make up a relatively minor share of its overall footprint. In 2022, Amazon's scope 1 (operational emissions) were 14.4 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent (mtCO₂e), representing less than a fifth of its total emissions for 2022 (71.27mtCO₂e). Amazon's emissions have risen by approximately 40% since 2019, although emissions were down 0.4% in 2022 compared with 2021, according to its latest sustainability report. For context, Amazon's 2022 reported emissions are similar to the annual national 2022 emissions of countries like Austria (77mtCO₂e) and Norway (72mtCO₂e).