Is Amazon’s New Data Center Really Carbon Neutral?

Amazon Web Services

by | Oct 28, 2014

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Amazon Web ServicesAmazon Web Services last week announced its new data center in Frankfurt, Germany would be carbon neutral. Greenpeace says prove it.

Greenpeace senior energy campaigner David Pomerantz says Amazon needs to release more information to verify its carbon-neutral claim. “While we would like to trust that Amazon’s new facility will actually be powered by renewable sources, Amazon’s refusal so far to disclose any data about its energy use makes it difficult for customers or the public to accept the company’s claim on good faith alone.”

Amazon could produce sufficient renewable energy in Germany to power its data center, Greenpeace says. If, however, the company is buying renewable energy credits or carbon offsets while powering its Frankfurt facility with coal or nuclear energy, “then its latest data center will continue the company’s track record as the dirtiest major cloud computing provider.”

Greenpeace says 97 percent of the electricity AWS buys in Virginia — its computing power center — is powered by coal, gas and nuclear power plants.

Google, Rackspace, Apple and Facebook have all committed to powering their data centers with 100 percent renewable energy.

An April Greenpeace report accused AWS of powering its infrastructure with polluting energy sources that contribute to global warming unlike its high-tech rivals.

 

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