RWE and Amazon deepen clean power ties in new deal
German power giant will supply renewable energy to Amazon Web Services from wind and solar farms, building on earlier power purchase agreements
RWE and Amazon have entered a new partnership aimed at advancing the German utility’s digital transformation and the US tech giant’s decarbonisation through clean power supply.
RWE announced today that it had signed a strategic framework agreement with the US tech and retail behemoth’s cloud computing unit Amazon Web Services (AWS).
The deal aims to advance RWE’s digital transformation initiatives and support Amazon’s efforts to power its operations more sustainably by supporting renewable energy projects, said the utility.
“This strategic framework agreement with AWS represents a significant milestone in our commitment to supporting the digital infrastructure that powers our modern economy with clean energy,” said Ulf Kerstin, chief commercial officer of RWE Supply & Trading.
“Advancing digitalisation and electrification are also driving up demand for electricity. Our competitive portfolio of renewable and flexible energy generation is ideally suited to meet this demand.”
The agreement builds upon an already strong relationship between the two companies in the US where they have seven PPAs in place totaling 1.1GW of renewable energy capacity.
Amazon is the leading corporate customer in the US for clean energy with 20GW of total procured operational and pipeline capacity, according to trade group American Clean Power Association.
Amazon has in recent years dominated corporate clean power procurement leaderboards, tapping as much clean power as the entire generation fleets of markets like Chile and Belgium.
As of 1 April, RWE was the country's second largest independent power producer after NextEra Energy Resources with ownership of 10.67GW of battery storage, grid-scale solar, and wind capacity.
Howard Gefen, general manager for energy and utilities at AWS, said that using capabilities like artificial intelligence and analytics the company will help RWE accelerate its digital transformation, “enabling smarter decision-making and enhanced operational performance throughout their energy business.”
“Through this expanded collaboration with RWE, we’ll continue to explore new sources of carbon-free energy to help decarbonise our operations.”
Amazon is one of the many tech giants that is urgently seeking clean energy supply for its growing data centre fleet and power-hungry AI systems.
The company is part of a major industry lobbying effort to persuade Republicans in the US Senate to dial back the aggressive phase-down of federal clean energy tax credits sought by President Donald Trump.
Private energy consultancies have raised concerns that spiking the tax credits prematurely will constrain electric power supply amid increased demand, raising prices and placing the US at a competitive disadvantage with China in the race for artificial intelligence (AI) supremacy.
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