Amazon cranks the numbers and... Yes, they decide 100% renewable for AWS

Amazon is a company that always runs the numbers on whether something makes sense. For years, Amazon didn't think it was worthwhile to have renewable energy as part of its data center portfolio.  In 2011, though AWS had its first renewable energy site in Oregon, and they have added two more.

Options for Customers Seeking Carbon-Neutral Cloud Infrastructure
AWS introduced its first carbon-neutral region – US West (Oregon) – in 2011. Today, AWS offers customers three AWS Regions that are 100% carbon-neutral – US West (Oregon), EU (Frankfurt), and AWS GovCloud (US).

And now Amazon has announced it plans on being 100% renewable.

In addition to the environmental benefits inherently associated with running applications in the cloud, AWS has a long-term commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy usage for our global infrastructure footprint.

I've been blogging on the idea of a green data center since 2007 and things have come a long way with Google, Apple, Facebook, and now Amazon amongst many others who have decided 100% renewable energy is a good choice.

Being 100% renewable is a milestone, but not the end.  Having a sustainable strategy for data centers  is more than the energy consumption.  There are so many others things to work on to  green a data center. 

The nice thing is I don't have to focus on the renewable energy part as the media has caught on to the concept.

 

Amazon Vows to Run on 100 Percent Renewable Energy

Wired - ‎12 hours ago‎

Over the past few years, Apple, Google, and Facebook pledged to run their online empires on renewable energy, and considering how large these empires have become—how many data centers and machines are now required to keep them going—this was ...

Amazon Vows to Run Its Cloud Entirely on Renewable Energy

TIME - ‎2 hours ago‎

Amazon on Wednesday vowed to run its cloud-computing division completely on renewable energy, following in the footsteps of tech giants Apple, Google and Facebook in making a comprehensive environmental pledge regarding its data services.

Amazon will run all its data centers on renewable energy...eventually

GeekWire - ‎18 hours ago‎

AWS-Logo-Orange Environmentally-conscious cloud users got good news today: Amazon has pledged to get all of its data centers running entirely on renewable energy. In a new post on the AWS website, Amazon said that the company has made a ...

 

Amazon Joins The 'Race To Build A Green Internet' With A 100% Renewable ...

International Business Times - ‎2 hours ago‎

The group estimated that Amazon Web Services gets only 15 percent of its energy from renewables such as wind and solar power, while the rest comes mostly from carbon-intensive sources such as coal-fired power plants. In an April report, Greenpeace gave ...

 

Amazon promises to run entirely on renewable energy... finally

ZDNet - ‎18 hours ago‎

amazon-hero (Image: Amazon via CNET). Amazon has promised to achieve 100 percent renewable energy usage for its global footprint, the company announced on Wednesday. No firm deadline was given, but it's likely to take many years. Perhaps even ...