In the latest sign of increasing corporate investment in renewable power, tech giant Amazon.com Inc. on Wednesday announced a deal that locks up 80 per cent of the power from what is being described as the largest solar project in Canada.

Located on 3,330 acres of grazing land in southern Alberta’s Vulcan County, the $700 million, 465-megawatt Travers Solar Project is currently under construction and being developed by Calgary-headquartered Greengate Power Corp., with an expected start date of late 2022.

It marks Amazon’s second announcement this year for an offtake agreement for solar power in Alberta, as it strives to completely switch to renewable power by 2025. The announcement ties into a string of recent corporate investments into renewable power, a trend taking shape in Canada and across the globe, as Alphabet Inc., Facebook Inc. and Microsoft Corp. as well as beer giant Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd. and baker Grupo Bimbo S.A.B. de C.V. and others announce offtake agreements.

“Renewable energy projects have historically been built on the back of government-backed power purchase agreements,” Dan Balaban, chief executive of Greengate Power, told the Financial Post, “and the industry is transitioning where we’re seeing some of the largest largest global companies now buying renewable energy in order to meet their net zero ambitions.”

Amazon, which did not make anyone available for comment, announced in a press release that it had signed 14 deals to buy 1.5 gigawatts of renewable power from wind and solar farms located in Europe and the U.S. in addition to Canada.

Keep reading in the Financial Post

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