Amazon India, a global e-commerce giant, will set up 8,000 kW of rooftop solar installations by the end of this year at its fulfilment centres and sorting facilities across the country, according to PTI.

The initiative is aimed at generating clean energy to make its centers self sustaining. Amazon has already installed 1,600 kW of solar panels at its centres in Delhi and Hyderabad. In the next expansion phase, five fulfilment centres and two sorting facilities in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Chennai will see rooftop solar installations. The company also has plans to expand its rooftop solar capacity at its fulfilment center in Delhi.

“By the end of 2018, we plan to expand this installation to an additional seven Amazon operations sites in India,” Akhil Saxena, vice-president of customer fulfilment at Amazon India, told PTI.

This initiative in India is a part of Amazon’s global vision to power 50 of its fulfilment and sorting centers with solar energy by the end of 2020.

The company has also installed solar energy systems in four Amazon Care Community and Resource Centres in Haryana to provide solar power and support its community programs.

More and more companies are gradually turning to solar power to meet their increasing energy needs in a cost-effective and sustainable manner. Recently, Mercom reported that another global conglomerate, Microsoft, completed its first renewable energy deal in India. Under the agreement, the company will purchase 3 MW of solar-power from Atria Power for its new office building in Bengaluru. It will meet 80 percent of the projected electricity needs through this energy purchase.

India plans to achieve 40 GW of rooftop solar as part of its broader goal of achieving 100 GW of solar capacity across the country by 2022.

According to the Mercom India Solar Project Tracker, India has an installed capacity of ~2 GW of solar rooftop installations as of March 2018.

Image credit: Leonard J. DeFrancisci [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons

Nitin is a staff reporter at Mercomindia.com and writes on renewable energy and related sectors. Prior to Mercom, Nitin has worked for CNN IBN, India News, Agricultural Spectrum and Bureaucracy Today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Communication from Manipal Institute of Communication at Manipal University and Master’s degree in International Relations from Jindal School of International Affairs. More articles from Nitin Kabeer