Introduction

With agreements for more than 40 gigawatts of existing and planned utility-scale clean energy capacity, Amazon.com Inc. remains one of the largest corporate purchasers of carbon-free electricity, accounting for about one-quarter of the hyperscaler-linked utility-scale capacity tracked by S&P Global Energy. In addition to reflecting a focus on sustainability — despite shifting energy priorities in Washington — these figures underscore the scale of the global technology giant's power needs. However, as the AI-driven data center boom stretches power demand, Amazon's carbon emissions are rising.

The Take

The foundations of the environmental agenda that shaped energy production and procurement in the early 2020s have been shaken by the power-intensive AI revolution. Along with other factors, this has raised questions about the strength of corporate sustainability commitments, particularly among hyperscalers. Amazon appears committed to its planned sustainability path, with tracked contracted clean energy capacity suggesting it continues to follow through on its public net-zero emissions commitments. However, the rise in nuclear power in its carbon-free energy portfolio — a development that would have seemed unlikely just a few years ago — illustrates the paradigm shift in electricity demand in the AI era: The needs are enormous, and intermittent renewable power alone will not suffice. Amazon's greenhouse gas emissions, meanwhile, have risen over the past two years. This includes a spike in Scope 2 emissions, which are tied to purchased electricity, in 2025 — signaling that the company is relying in part on conventional generation as it expands its data center footprint to support its AI ambitions.

Clean energy footprint

Driven by both its decarbonization objectives and the AI-fueled data center boom, Amazon has more than doubled its portfolio of utility-scale clean energy capacity over the past three years. In its latest sustainability report, released in July 2026, the company reports a renewable energy portfolio — consisting of utility-scale solar and wind projects and on-site solar — totaling nearly 42 GW.

S&P Global Energy has specifically tracked about 35 GW of grid-scale solar and wind capacity within that portfolio. Unsurprisingly, given the size of the market and Amazon's US roots, about 60% of this capacity is in the US, spread across 30 states.

Texas dominates, hosting about 35% of Amazon's contracted US total. Ohio, California, Virginia and Indiana — three of them within the data center-heavy PJM Interconnection footprint — round out the top five with a combined 7 GW (about 34% of Amazon's US utility-scale solar and wind total). For context, as of the first quarter of 2026, Amazon operated more than 7.2 GW of global, self-built IT capacity, according to 451 Research's Data Center KnowledgeBase. About 86% of that capacity was in the US.

Figure 1: Amazon solar and wind capacity

Geographic concentration and market strategy

The scale and geographic spread of Amazon's renewable energy portfolio underscore the global reach of its operations. Outside the US, the company's solar and wind generation fleet spans 29 countries — up from 21 as of the company's 2022 Sustainability Report released in July 2023 — with European projects accounting for more than 70% of its non-US capacity. Across Europe, Amazon is strategically aligning its portfolio with the region's varied renewable resources, including solar in the Mediterranean and wind in Northern Europe.

More than 3.9 GW of Amazon's European solar and wind capacity, or about 37% of the company's regional total, is based in Spain, including 3.4 GW of tracked utility-scale solar. Including Portugal, Amazon's renewable energy portfolio in the Iberian Peninsula stands at 4.1 GW. In Germany — Amazon's second-largest European market in secured renewable energy capacity and the fourth-largest market worldwide — the renewable mix is reversed, with wind accounting for 99% of Amazon's tracked utility-scale total in the country.

Amazon has also significantly expanded its renewable energy portfolio in India in recent years, further demonstrating its commitment to reaching zero-carbon emissions across its global operations by 2040. Amazon is the largest corporate off-taker of renewable energy in India, giving it a meaningful role in the country's renewable energy build-out, even as India's electricity production remains heavily dominated by fossil-fuel generation. Coal is projected to account for more than 70% of India's generation output in 2026. With 1.4 GW of tracked capacity, India is Amazon's third-largest market by contracted grid-scale renewable energy capacity.

The nuclear turn

Once entirely composed of solar and wind capacity, Amazon's carbon-free energy procurement strategy has evolved under pressure from the rising demand for AI power and the global race to achieve AI dominance. The company's utility-scale clean energy portfolio now includes a tracked 8.2 GW of new and to-be-developed nuclear energy capacity, up from zero just two years ago — illustrating the scale of the AI revolution's shift in power demand.

Amazon set off the wave of high-profile hyperscaler-nuclear energy deals and partnerships over the past two years when it announced in February 2024 the acquisition of a Talen Energy Corp. data center campus adjacent to the 2.5-GW Susquehanna Steam Electric Station in Pennsylvania. At the time, Amazon planned to procure power directly from Susquehanna in a behind-the-meter (BTM) arrangement — a setup that would have reduced the flow of electrons from the power plant to the grid.

Regulators ultimately blocked the deal over concerns about the impact on other customers. In June 2024, Amazon and Talen Energy entered into a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) for 1,920 megawatts of capacity that do not bypass the PJM Interconnection grid. The PPA includes the possibility of electricity delivery to other Amazon facilities in Pennsylvania, as well as jointly exploring small modular reactor (SMR) deployment in the state.

In February 2026, Amazon secured a 20-year PPA with Vistra Corp. for up to 1.2 GW of BTM carbon-free electricity from Comanche Peak, a nuclear power plant in Somervell County, Texas, southwest of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metro area. The plant has 2.5 GW of operating capacity, with an additional 3.4 GW planned. The deal is intended to supply Amazon's Project Spectrum, a planned data center campus adjacent to Comanche Peak.

More than 5 GW of the nuclear capacity Amazon has in the pipeline are expected to come from SMRs to be deployed by X-energy Inc., an advanced reactor developer in which Amazon invested $500 million in a series C-1 financing round in October 2024. Amazon plans to support these projects through direct investment and long-term PPAs. The plan includes an initial four-reactor, 320-MW project in Washington state with local utility Energy Northwest, with potential expansion to 12 units and 960 MW.

Figure 2: Tracked Amazon grid-scale clean energy portfolio breakout

A strong renewable energy legacy

Despite the growing presence of nuclear energy, solar remains the technology of choice across Amazon's global utility-scale clean energy portfolio, accounting for more than 55% of the company's total (these calculations do not take into consideration SMR capacity to be developed). According to S&P Global Energy tracking, Amazon has contracted grid-scale solar energy capacity in 18 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Oceania, South America and Africa. In the US, solar accounts for 59% of the company's carbon-free energy portfolio and is contracted across 20 states, primarily in the country's lower latitudes. Texas plays an outsized role, with about one-third of the grid-scale solar capacity contracted by Amazon located in the Lone Star State.

With about 11 GW under contract, wind is a distant second globally, accounting for less than one-quarter of Amazon's clean energy portfolio. Unlike solar and nuclear, however, wind has a stronger presence outside the company's home market — 62% of Amazon's wind capacity has been secured abroad, including 5.4 GW in Europe. Once dominant in renewable energy deployment and generation, wind has lost ground as solar costs have fallen sharply. Solar also has an advantage in installation speed and time to power. Wind, meanwhile, tends to face greater community opposition because of concerns about visual and noise impacts.

Emissions rise despite clean energy progress

Amazon's renewable energy strategy remains in place, but its momentum is coming under scrutiny as the company shifts priorities to meet the power needs of AI data centers amid intensifying global competition in AI. In this environment, energy availability may be taking precedence over decarbonization goals, raising questions about the depth of corporate sustainability commitments.

Figure 3: Amazon emissions (MMT CO₂e)

After several years of minimal change, Amazon's latest sustainability report shows that the company's carbon emissions rose more than 16% in 2025 to 80.9 million metric tons of CO₂ equivalent. Although Amazon says it matched 100% of the electricity consumed by its global operations with renewable energy for a third consecutive year in 2025, Scope 2 emissions — those associated with purchased electricity — surged nearly 34% year over year. Scope 3 emissions, meanwhile, rose nearly 20%. Scope 3 accounts for indirect greenhouse gas emissions generated across a company's value chain. For a company like Amazon, they can be linked to materials such as cement, steel and glass used in construction.

That increase can likely be explained, at least in part, by the company's AI-driven data center expansion. In her introductory letter to Amazon's 2025 Sustainability Report, Chief Sustainability Officer Kara Hurst appeared to acknowledge the challenge AI poses to the company's ability to meet its Climate Pledge, describing it as a change "happening faster and more broadly than anything else we've encountered in our lifetime." Hurst also pointed to the technology's growing demands on energy, water and infrastructure.

Through the Climate Pledge, launched in 2019, Amazon committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. Its targets include matching 100% of its power consumption with renewable energy by 2025 and making 50% of shipments net-zero carbon by 2030. In addition to utility-scale renewable energy procurement and distributed solar generation, Amazon's clean energy strategy includes plans to deploy 100,000 electric delivery vehicles by 2030.

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