Amazon Plans Mammoth West Texas Wind Farm

By Anca Gagiuc, Associate Editor

Jumbo Road Wind Farm

Dallas—Amazon has announced plans to build Amazon Wind Farm Texas, a 253-megawatt wind farm in Scurry County, Texas, that will generate 1,000,000 megawatt hours of wind energy annually. The facility will produce enough energy to power almost 90,000 U.S. homes.

Amazon Wind Farm Texas will comprise more than 100 turbines, each with a rotor diameter twice as long as the wingspan of a Boeing 747. The project is scheduled to open in late 2017, marking the company’s largest renewable energy project to date.

“We’re excited to work with the community in Scurry County and Lincoln Clean Energy to generate 1,000,000 MWh of renewable energy each year from West Texas,” said Kara Hurst, director of sustainability with Amazon. “Amazon Wind Farm Texas is our largest renewable energy project to date and the newest milestone in our long-term sustainability efforts across the company.”

Lincoln Clean Energy, a portfolio company of I Squared Capital, will construct, own and operate the new wind farm and Amazon will purchase roughly 90 percent of the power it generates.

“We applaud Amazon’s leadership in directly purchasing renewable power,” said Declan Flanagan, founder & CEO of Lincoln Clean Energy. “Direct purchasing by large, long-term thinking customers like Amazon has quickly become a key driver of the transition to renewable power across the U.S.”

Amazon has previously announced smaller wind and solar farms in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia, but Texas leads the nation in wind power. The five projects together will generate more than 2.6 million MWh of renewable energy each year, enough to power more than 240,000 U.S. homes.

Image courtesy of Lincoln Clean Energy