French fossil-based supermajor TotalEnergies today unveiled a massive continent-spanning power purchase agreement, supplying 100% renewable electricity to data centre leviathan Amazon.
Under the deal, TotalEnergies, number seven among the world’s biggest oil companies, will supply 474MW of carbon-free generation capacity to the retail and web service behemoth across its European and north American sites.
The deal is not flagged as exclusive, and no timelines were specified in today’s release to investors on the London Stock Exchange.
The state-controlled exploration-to-retail company rolls up its renewables revenues within a division including gas and power. It is still thought to derive over 90% of its revenues from fossil fuels. In 2017 analysts at CDP estimated Total to be among the planet’s 100-biggest carbon emitters, responsible for 0.9% of global emissions between 1985 and 2015.
At the end of 2020, the company’s gross power generation capacity worldwide was around 12GW, including 7GW in renewables.
In May it re-branded itself as TotalEnergies, committing itself to offering 35 GW of power generation by 2025. It aims for 100GW by 2030, ranking then among the world’s top five power generators.
Amazon operates in excess of 38 data centres worldwide, with US clusters in Virginia and Oregon. European facilities include at least three centres in Dublin, plus sites in Germany, and one in Yate, near Bristol.
Amazon has declared its intention to be power itself exclusively from renewables by 2030, and to be carbon-neutral in all its operations by 2040.
“TotalEnergies is deeply committed to reducing the carbon emissions of its operations and supporting its customers to do the same around the world, said Stéphane Michel, TotalEnergies’ president for gas, renewables & power. “By signing this agreement, we are proud to enter into this key collaboration with Amazon and to accompany them on their journey to carbon neutrality.”
Under the deal, Amazon will supply cloud-based computing and web management services to its counterpart, speeding digitization of the oilco’s operations via its Digital Factory platform.
Data centres are already estimated to consume around 2% of the planet’s electricity, a proportion believed by some on track to doubling by 2030. One estimate from consultants Energy Innovation last year had it that data centres worldwide already used 205 billion kWh.
