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Amazon Pledges To Cover 15 Massive Warehouse Rooftops With Solar Panels (arstechnica.com)
Amazon announced earlier this week that it would install solar panels on 15 of its fulfillment and sorting centers around the U.S. in 2017. "Depending on the specific project, time of year, and other factors, a solar installation could generate as much as 80 percent of a single fulfillment facility's annual energy needs," Amazon wrote in a press release. "That energy will provide electricity for everything from keeping the lights on to powering Amazon Robotics at fulfillment centers," reports Ars Technica. From the report: Amazon is finding stride with other major companies, but it's a bit short compared to some of its more ambitious peers. For example, Google announced in December that by the end of 2017 it would be using a carbon offsets program to pay for as much renewable energy as all of its data centers and offices worldwide consumed. The search giant said at the time that the move to renewable energy wasn't just for show -- it was about avoiding energy price fluctuations in the long term. That's a sentiment Amazon echoed as well in its Tuesday press release. "We are putting our scale and inventive culture to work on sustainability -- this is good for the environment, our business, and our customers," wrote Dave Clark, Amazon's senior vice president of worldwide operations. "By diversifying our energy portfolio, we can keep business costs low and pass along further savings to customers. It's a win-win."
Although I'm pleased to see this announcement, living here in Lakeland, FL where there's a fairly large Amazon distribution center I'm really disappointed that there's no move this year to put these here, when they're going to be putting them in Delaware, Maryland, and New Jersey. In virtually every solar radiation average exposure map I've seen, Florida generally receives more solar radiation than all three of those states - and sometimes more than areas of California as well. This area is ripe for this, at least from a physical standpoint. I have to assume there's some sort of governmental roadblock in the way at the moment that isn't to their tastes, because it certainly can't be because they won't generate enough power down here.
Yes, it is harder to get solar in Florida. If you voted in November, don't you remember the solar amendment?
https://www.wired.com/2016/10/...
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/op...