Global investment leader selects AWS as a preferred cloud provider to gain business insights, improve workplace safety, and automate hydroelectric, wind, and solar operations
Brookfield Renewable agrees to provide clean energy capacity to power Amazon’s operations on three continents
At AWS re:Invent, Amazon Web Services, Inc., an Amazon.com, Inc. company, announced that Brookfield Asset Management, one of the world’s leading investors in renewable power, has selected AWS as a preferred cloud provider to accelerate its digital transformation and become a more data-driven company in the cloud. Brookfield migrated its legacy systems to AWS and is using AWS’s analytics, containers, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, and storage capabilities, as well as AWS’s extensive partner network, to modernize its technology infrastructure, optimize operations, and boost innovation.
In addition to its agreement with AWS, Brookfield Renewable, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management and one of the world’s largest publicly traded renewable power platforms, will provide 601.6 megawatts (MW) of clean wind and solar energy capacity to power Amazon’s operations in Europe, North America, and India. In total, these projects are expected to generate 1,370 gigawatt-hours (GWh), which is enough to power more than 120,000 U.S. homes per year.
“Our partnership with Amazon is a tremendously exciting example of companies working together to reach net zero,” said Ruth Kent, chief operating officer at Brookfield Renewable. “AWS is helping us modernize our operational systems, giving us the scalability, reliability, and innovation we need to deliver clean energy around the world. In return, Brookfield Renewable will provide renewable power to Amazon on three continents, which will help Amazon stay on path to power its operations with 100% renewable energy. We look forward to seeing what more this partnership can bring in the future.”
Working with AWS Professional Services, AWS Managed Service Provider (MSP) BDO Lixar, and AWS Partner Databricks, Brookfield Asset Management consolidated 40 petabytes of data in a data lake on AWS to optimize facility operations, increase production output, and improve equipment performance. Applying AWS machine learning and analytics capabilities to this data helps the company automate key aspects of its operations. These capabilities enable Brookfield to proactively manage complex commercial transactions, improve returns on assets, and reduce operating costs. Brookfield Asset Management also uses Databricks’ Lakehouse Platform on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) to provide a central data analytics platform that is increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs across more than 10 internal business organizations (including Trading, Risk, Origination, and Operations).
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In addition, Brookfield Asset Management is implementing improved workplace safety technology, collaborating with AWS and AWS Partner Blackline Safety to provide real-time employee safety monitoring at three hydroelectric dam sites in the U.S. Employees wear Blackline’s G7 wearable safety devices, which rely on Amazon Kinesis (AWS’s service for easily collecting, processing, and analyzing video and data streams in real time) for high-speed streaming data ingestion of location and safety data into the cloud, and Amazon Redshift (AWS’s cloud data warehouse) to detect if an employee is in danger or needs assistance, thereby triggering an alert for supervisors to send help.
“Together with Brookfield Asset Management, we are advancing the use of renewable energy around the globe,” said Howard Gefen, general manager of Energy & Utilities at AWS. “Brookfield is tapping into the breadth and depth of AWS’s proven global infrastructure, services, and partner community to better harness its data, become more flexible and scalable, and gain better insights into its businesses. In addition, working with Brookfield Renewable will keep Amazon on the path to powering our operations with 100% renewable energy while adding more clean energy to grids around the world.”
The collaboration announced today keeps Amazon on track to power its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of its original 2030 commitment, and to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. The committed 601.6 MW of power purchase agreements (PPAs) will provide electricity to seven Amazon projects—three in the United States (in Arkansas, Illinois, and Mississippi), three in Europe (in Spain, Northern Ireland, and Italy), and one of Amazon’s first projects in India.