Amazon has decided to locate a second wind farm in Ireland, to be located in Co Cork, and once operational, the new wind farm will provide 23.2 megawatts (MW) of renewable capacity, with expected generation of 68,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of clean energy annually.

The first wind farm project was announced by Amazon for Meenbog in Co Donegal in March of this year. The Cork wind farm and a second, similar development announced for the Commonwealth of Virginia in the US will, along with other similar sites, supply clean energy to the company’s Amazon Web Service (AWS) data centres.

Amazon’s investments in renewable energy were recognised in the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA) 2018 ‘Solar Means Business Report’, which ranked Amazon No 1 in the US for the amount of solar installed on its site in 2018 and it was ranked No 2 for the total amount of solar it has installed to date.

A total of 51 solar rooftops

Globally, Amazon has 66 renewable energy projects, including 51 solar rooftops, that the company expects will generate 1,342MW of renewable capacity and deliver close to four million MWh of clean energy annually.

IDA Ireland executive director Mary Buckley said: “This second wind farm development by Amazon will help support Ireland’s renewable energy goals and further enhance Ireland’s position as a global destination for renewable energy infrastructure. It’s a very welcome development.”

Construction on the Cork wind farm will begin this year and the project is expected to begin contributing to Ireland’s renewable energy capacity by 2020.