AWS, Community Energy to develop 80-MW solar farm in Virginia

Amazon

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Community Energy have teamed up to support construction and operation of an 80-megawatt (MW) solar farm in Accomack County, Virginia. The project named Amazon Solar Farm US East is expected to generate about 170,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of solar power every year.

And the plant is likely to begin commercial operations next October, a statement issued by AWS said.

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The expected output of the plant should be adequate to meet the annual average electricity needs of an estimated 15,000 US homes.

According to the AWS statement, Amazon Solar Farm US East would be the largest solar farm in Virginia. The power generated by the solar farm is to be evacuated by electrical grids that supply current cloud datacenters of AWS and would also cater to future expansion of the company.

Last November AWS shared its long-term commitment to achieve 100 percent renewable energy usage for its global infrastructure. As of April, 25 percent of the electricity consumed the global infrastructure of AWS came from renewable energy sources. The company claims it has set the target to increase that to 40 percent by the end of 2016.

Ajith Kumar S

[email protected]