Amazon and Mercury NZ do renewable energy deal

Amazon’s first renewable energy project here will enable the Amazon Web Services (AWS) upcoming data centres in Auckland to operate on renewable energy when they launch in 2024.

Mercury NZ and Amazon have announced a new long-term corporate power purchase agreement (PPA) for Turitea South, a 103MW wind farm under construction near Palmerston North.

Turitea South is expected to generate 370GWh of new renewable energy annually once it’s operational. Amazon will purchase about half of that – more than what will be required to power the AWS Asia Pacific (Auckland) Region data centres at launch.

When commissioned in June 2023, Turitea Wind Farm (Turitea North and Turitea South) will be the country’s largest wind farm, with 33 turbines in Turitea North, and 27 turbines in Turitea South.

“Our agreement with Amazon helps us shift the dial on decarbonisation in New Zealand, and we are proud to power their operations here to support further renewable generation,” says Mercury NZ chief executive Vince Hawksworth.

“We’re committed to delivering on our strong pipeline of new renewable generation and this long-term arrangement helps us get there faster.”

 AWS New Zealand commercial operations country manager Tiffany Bloomquist says she’s excited Amazone has signed the PPA with an energy company that also uses AWS cloud services, demonstrating how digitalisation and decarbonisation are mutually beneficial.

“Alongside our investments into cloud infrastructure with the AWS Auckland Region, this long-term renewable energy project reflects Amazon’s deep and long-term commitment to supporting a sustainable future for New Zealand.”

 The new AWS Asia Pacific (Auckland) Region is due to launch in 2024 with three Availability Zones (AZs).

The Region will enable more developers, start-ups, and enterprises as well as government, education, and non-profit organisations to run their applications, and serve end users from data centres in New Zealand, ensuring customers can keep their data in New Zealand.

Mercury NZ has also worked with AWS for the past eight years, leveraging AWS services to support its cloud strategy and services, and most recently to support Trustpower’s Amazon Connect contact centre environment.

 Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019, committing to reach net-zero carbon by 2040 – 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, now having more than 400 signatories spanning 55 industries and 35 countries, including Xero Limited from New Zealand.

Amazon aims to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025 and has a renewable energy portfolio of more than 20GW across at least 400 renewable energy projects in 23 countries.