Amazon Builds Second Wind Farm in Ohio

by Laura Calugar

One of AWS’ wind farms

Columbus, Ohio—Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon.com company, has announced plans to build a new 189 megawatt wind farm in Hardin County, Ohio, that will generate 530,000 megawatt hours of wind energy annually, starting December 2017. The wind farm will be known as Amazon Wind Farm U.S. Central 2. The company engaged EverPower, a wind-energy developer, to construct, own and operate the new wind farm. According to The Columbus Dispatch, the $300 million investment probably makes this project the largest in the county. AWS’ fifth renewable energy project in the U.S will deliver energy onto the electric grid powering AWS data centers located in Ohio and northern Virginia.

EverPower’s project was approved by Ohio regulators in 2014. Less than 105 acres will be taken out of agricultural production for this project, which will consist of up to 105 turbines. Once operational, it will require up to a dozen long-term employees. During the 18-month construction period, the company will hire approximately 150 full and part-time workers. When the newest wind farm is complete, AWS’ renewable-energy projects are expected to generate 2.2 million megawatt hours of energy each year, enough to power 200,000 U.S. homes.

The company’s long-term goal is to power its “cloud” services entirely with renewable energy. This second Ohio wind project joins Amazon Wind Farm U.S. Central in Paulding County, which will start producing wind energy in May 2017. Other AWS renewable energy projects in the U.S. include Amazon Wind Farm Fowler Ridge in Indiana and Amazon Solar Farm U.S. East in Virginia — both of which are currently in production. Amazon Wind Farm U.S. East in North Carolina is under construction and expected to start generating electricity by December 2016.

Recently, the online retail giant announced that it will develop its largest renewable energy project to date in Texas.

Image courtesy of Amazon.com