Amazon’s renewable energy portfolio swells to over 20 GW, enough to power 5.2M homes
Amazon increased its renewable energy capacity by 8.3 GW in 2022, bringing its total portfolio to over 20 GW, enough to power millions of US homes.
Growing to become one of the largest global companies by market cap comes with great responsibility. The bigger the operations, the more damaging they can be to the environment with more energy use, carbon emissions, etc.
After the pandemic shuttered most people inside their homes, online shopping became a go-to for many.
As a result, e-commerce giant Amazon saw its business surge, with an over 200% rise in profits as shopping habits turned digital. To offset the company’s explosive growth, it has been investing in renewable energy projects and other sustainable activities to reduce its environmental impact.
Since 2014 Amazon has been on a mission to decarbonize its business globally by adding renewable energy capacity and electric vehicles to its fleet while striving to make packaging more efficient.
The e-commerce giant committed to rolling out over 100,000 EDVs from Rivian by 2030 as part of its Climate Pledge. According to Amazon’s latest update, over 1,000 Rivian EDVs debuted this past holiday season to make zero-emission deliveries.
Amazon’s renewable energy portfolio expanded in 2022
Meanwhile, the company added significant clean energy capacity last year to help it reach its goal of powering operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its goal.
Amazon announced today it set a new record for the most renewable energy purchased in 2022, adding an additional 8.3 GW through 133 new projects in 11 countries.
Altogether, Amazon now has over 20 GW, enough to power 5.3 million US homes. The clean energy capacity is spread throughout 401 projects (164 wind farms and 237 rooftop solar projects) in 22 different countries. According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, Amazon remains the most prominent corporate buyer of renewable energy, maintaining the position since 2020.
Once complete and operational, Amazon expects to generate 56,881 GWh of clean energy annually.
Head of sustainability research at BloombergNEF, Kyle Harris, says Amazon’s clean energy portfolio is now among the leading utilities globally, adding:
The fact that it announced a new annual record of clean energy in a year mired by a global energy crisis, supply chain bottlenecks, and high interest rates speaks to its forward planning and expertise in navigating power markets and executing long-term contracts.
Despite economic uncertainty, Amazon stood by its commitment last year, doubling down on its renewable energy efforts.
Electrek’s Take
You have to give credit where credit is due. Amazon is doing its part by deploying hundreds of clean energy projects across the globe.
Amazon says renewable energy reached 85% of its business in 2021. By doubling down this past year, the e-commerce giant is now on track to hit its goal of powering business operations with 100% renewable five years ahead of schedule.
However, the company still has a lot of work to do to lessen its environmental impact. According to research from Statista, packaging accounts for the most significant share of greenhouse gas emissions in the e-commerce industry, accounting for 45% of total emissions.
Amazon has also made strides in reducing emissions by reducing per-shipment packaging weight by 38% (eliminating over 1.5 million tons of packaging), optimizing materials, and offering vendors incentives to use fully recyclable materials.
The e-commerce giant is making significant progress in its renewable energy goals, yet there’s still a long way to go in reducing packaging waste and energy usage overall.
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Electric motorcycles are already known for their instant torque and quiet performance, but now one electric dirt bike has proven it can do something gas bikes can’t: breathe where combustion engines can’t. Stark Future and Swiss mountaineer-rider Jiri Zak just made history by setting a new high-altitude world record on the world’s highest active volcano, riding a fully electric Stark VARG EX up to an astonishing 6,721 meters (22,051 feet) above sea level.
The record-setting ride took place on Los Ojos del Salado, a massive stratovolcano straddling the Chile–Argentina border in the Atacama Desert. It’s the tallest active volcano in the world and one of the most brutal environments on Earth to test the limits of man and machine. Sub-zero temperatures, violent weather, thin air, and volcanic terrain have made it the proving ground for record-breaking attempts by companies like Porsche, Yamaha, and Jeep since the early 2000s.
But this time, it wasn’t a combustion engine motorcycle powering the ascent, but rather a battery-powered motorcycle.
Stark’s electric VARG EX conquers the thin air
Riding at nearly 7,000 meters means serious altitude sickness risks for humans – and serious performance losses for gas engines. But that’s exactly where the Stark VARG EX shines. Without relying on air-fuel combustion, the VARG EX can deliver full torque even in oxygen-starved conditions. It also simplifies high-altitude riding by eliminating gear shifting, relying instead on electric driveline efficiency and seamless power delivery.
Jiri Zak, the expedition’s lead rider and a seasoned alpinist, put it best. “Two years ago this was just a dream – do it on an electric bike, where combustion loses its breath. Ojos is unforgiving; one mistake can cost your life. That’s why I’m here with a team I trust and a motorcycle that keeps delivering power in thin air.”
Zak’s attempt was logged on November 30, 2025, with GPS units that were sealed in advance to ensure authenticity. The full data is now undergoing third-party verification, with Guinness World Records authentication in process.
Stark and Zak aimed to push a motorcycle – regardless of the powertrain, electric or gas – higher than ever before. And they did.
The previous high-altitude motorcycling records involved heavily modified combustion bikes operating at the ragged edge of their capability. But the Stark VARG EX performed the feat right out of the box, with no major mechanical changes. That’s a serious milestone for electric mobility.
“This was never about a standalone number,” said Stark Future CEO Anton Wass. “It’s about proving that electric is not a compromise; it takes you further than any other combustion bike could. The VARG platform can operate at the edge of the atmosphere.”
Built for the extremes
To make the record possible, Stark assembled a team of logistics experts, mountain safety personnel, and videographers to document the expedition. The crew spent multiple days acclimating, scouting line choices, and studying energy management strategies for the high-altitude ride.
Weather windows were tight. Battery thermal regulation was crucial. Traction was unpredictable. Zak even described one of the most intense moments on the mountain, returning from the summit, “The hardest moment was the traverse to Argentina Pass. The balcony was gone. The wind and snow had erased my old track. Nature had taken the path back.”
Even with the challenges, the VARG EX maintained its composure, and its performance, throughout the climb.
A moonshot mentality
With a slogan like “Next stop? The moon!” it’s clear Stark is doing more than just chasing off-road trophies. The company is positioning itself as a symbol of what electric powertrains can accomplish in terrain where gas bikes falter.
Stark Future, founded in 2020 in Barcelona, has rapidly become the most talked-about name in the electric motocross scene. Their flagship VARG model claims to be the most powerful motocross bike ever built, and the EX variant used in this record attempt is the company’s enduro-specific version.
Stark’s vision is about pushing the motorcycle industry toward a more sustainable, electric future. And with this record-setting ride, they’ve just planted an electric flag higher than any motorcycle has ever gone before.
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The US solar industry just delivered another huge quarter, installing 11.7 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity in Q3 2025. That makes it the third-largest quarter on record and pushes total solar additions this year past 30 GW – despite the Trump administration’s efforts to kneecap clean energy.
According to the new “US Solar Market Insight Q4 2025” report from Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie, 85% of all new power added to the grid during the first nine months of the Trump administration came from solar and storage. And here’s the twist: Most of that growth – 73% – happened in red states.
Eight of the top 10 states for new installations fall into that category, including Texas, Indiana, Florida, Arizona, Ohio, Utah, Kentucky, and Arkansas. Utah jumped into the top 10 this quarter thanks to two big utility-scale projects totaling more than 1 GW.
But the report also flags major uncertainty ahead. Federal actions, including a July memo from the Department of the Interior (DOI), have slowed or stalled the approvals pipeline for utility-scale solar and storage. Without clarity on permitting timelines, Wood Mackenzie’s long-term utility-scale forecast through 2030 remains basically unchanged from last quarter.
“This record-setting quarter for solar deployment shows that the market is continuing to turn to solar to meet rising demand,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA’s president and CEO. She added that strong growth in red states underscores how decisively the market is shifting toward clean energy. “But unless this administration reverses course, the future of clean, affordable, and reliable solar and storage will be frozen by uncertainty, and Americans will continue to see their energy bills go up.”
Two new solar module factories opened this year in Louisiana and South Carolina, adding a combined 4.7 GW of capacity. That brings the total new US module manufacturing capacity added in 2025 to 17.7 GW. With a new wafer facility coming online in Michigan in Q3, the US can now produce every major component of the solar module supply chain.
“We expect 250 GW of solar to be installed from 2025 to 2030,” said Michelle Davis, head of solar research at Wood Mackenzie and lead author of the report. “But the US solar industry has more potential. With rising power demand across the country, solar could do even more if current constraints were eased.”
SEIA also noted that, following an analysis of EIA data, it found that more than 73 GW of solar projects across the US are stuck in permitting limbo and at risk of politically motivated delays or cancellations.
Read more: EIA: Solar + storage soar as fossil fuels stall through September 2025
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