Amazon Taps Plug Power to Supply 11,000 Tons of Green Hydrogen Annually

Amazon has penned an agreement with Plug Power to receive 10,950 tons of green hydrogen annually for its transportation and building operations starting in 2025.

The online retailer says that it will use the new green hydrogen to replace grey hydrogen, diesel, and other fossil fuels as it works to decarbonize its operations.

Specifically, this green hydrogen contract will provide enough power for 30,000 forklifts or 800 heavy-duty trucks for long-haul transportation.

"Amazon is proud to be an early adopter of green hydrogen given its potential to decarbonize hard-to-abate sectors like long-haul trucking, steel manufacturing, aviation, and ocean shipping," said Kara Hurst, vice president of Worldwide Sustainability at Amazon.

"We are relentless in our pursuit to meet our Climate Pledge commitment to be net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040, and believe that scaling the supply and demand for green hydrogen, such as through this agreement with Plug Power, will play a key role in helping us achieve our goals."

While forklifts and heavy-duty trucks are two potential use cases, Amazon says that it has "many more" potential uses under development. The company does note, however, that "to help power Amazon’s operations and meet our net-zero commitment, more hydrogen-powered equipment needs to be made commercially available."

Despite that lack of commercial availability, Amazon says that it has more than 70 fulfilment centres outfitted with hydrogen storage and dispensing systems. It already uses that infrastructure to power more than 15,000 forklifts with plans to grow that number to 20,000 across 100 fulfilment centres by 2025.

"That’s just the start," said Dean Fullerton, vice president of Global Engineering and Security Services at Amazon.

"Across Amazon’s operations, we’re exploring and testing the use of other hydrogen applications, such as fuel-cell electric trucks and fuel-cell power generation stations providing electricity to Amazon buildings."

“Plug is fully committed to a green hydrogen future, and we are building a complete hydrogen ecosystem – from molecule to applications combined with a resilient network of green hydrogen plants around the world – to make hydrogen adoption easy for companies looking to reach net-zero carbon emissions,” added Andy Marsh, CEO of Plug.

“Securing this major green hydrogen supply deal with a customer like Amazon affirms our multi-year investment and strategic expansion into green hydrogen. We are honored to help Amazon meet its ambitious sustainability goals and look forward to possibly expanding our relationship through the use of other hydrogen applications, such as fuel-cell electric trucks and fuel-cell power generation stations that could provide electricity to Amazon buildings and the deployment of electrolyzers in fulfillment centers.”

Amazon has committed to reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 and is "on a path" to powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025. Its vehicles, however, are on a different timeframe. The company's "Shipment Zero" vision is to make all Amazon shipments net-zero carbon, with 50% net-zero carbon by 2030, and purchase 100,000 electric delivery vehicles from Rivian.