Amazon signs 36MW Mossy Hill wind PPA

Amazon has signed a power purchase agreement with Statkraft for 36MW of output from the Mossy Hill wind farm near Lerwick, providing a long term corporate offtake arrangement for the planned Shetland project.

Amazon says Mossy Hill is expected to become operational in November 2030. The agreement adds the project to a UK carbon-free energy portfolio that now comprises more than 50 wind and solar developments representing more than 1GW of capacity.

The wind farm is being developed by Statkraft near Lerwick. Amazon’s agreement covers 36MW of generation from the project, which the company says will produce enough renewable electricity on an annual equivalent basis to match the consumption of more than 57,000 homes.

A corporate PPA does not change the physical path taken by electricity from the wind farm. Generation will enter the network through Mossy Hill’s grid connection, while the commercial agreement sets out the relationship between generator and offtaker for a defined volume of renewable output.

For a developer, that contracted demand can reduce exposure to future wholesale electricity prices and provide greater certainty around expected revenues. Statkraft has said the Amazon agreement gives it additional certainty to move the project forward, although the companies have not disclosed the duration or financial terms of the PPA.

That revenue visibility matters because most wind farm expenditure is committed before the first unit of electricity is sold. Turbines, foundations, roads, cranes, internal cabling, substations and connection work require capital during development and construction, leaving the project dependent on future operating revenues once it is commissioned.

The engineering programme extends well beyond the turbines themselves. Onshore wind output varies continuously with weather conditions, so the electrical collection system, protection, control and export infrastructure must accommodate changing generation while maintaining compliance with network requirements.

Shetland’s electricity system has changed materially as larger renewable developments have been built and the islands have gained stronger connection to the wider British network. New generation can therefore access a larger electricity market than was possible when the local system was more isolated, although each project remains constrained by its own connection agreement and network operating conditions.

Modern onshore turbines also concentrate more generating capacity into each foundation, tower and electrical connection than earlier machines. That can reduce the amount of some balance of plant infrastructure required per megawatt, but it increases the effect of an individual turbine outage on a relatively small project.

Availability therefore becomes an important operating consideration. Condition monitoring, scheduled maintenance, spare parts and access arrangements all influence whether turbines are ready to generate when the wind resource is available, particularly at remote sites where weather can restrict maintenance activity.

Amazon’s household comparison provides a useful indication of annual energy scale but does not describe how electricity will be supplied hour by hour. Wind production varies, domestic demand follows a different profile, and the wider power system balances those differences through other generation, storage, interconnection and flexible demand.

The Mossy Hill PPA forms part of Amazon’s wider use of long term renewable electricity contracts in Britain. Its existing Scottish portfolio includes agreements associated with Moray West offshore wind and other renewable projects, creating a geographically dispersed group of contracted sources rather than a single dedicated supply asset.

Amazon says its UK carbon-free energy portfolio now exceeds 1GW and includes more than 50 projects. The company has also reported more than £3 billion of investment in low carbon technologies in the UK between 2021 and 2025, although that total covers activity beyond renewable electricity procurement alone.

Corporate procurement has become one route through which renewable generators can secure predictable revenues outside traditional utility purchasing arrangements. Its commercial value depends on contract structure, future market prices, balancing arrangements and the credit quality of the counterparties, while the physical development remains subject to the same construction and grid risks as any other wind farm.

The agreement also illustrates the difference between financing a project’s output and delivering its electrical infrastructure. A PPA can make a future revenue stream easier to forecast, but it cannot accelerate turbine manufacture, substation construction or grid connection on its own. Those activities still have to be completed before contracted electricity exists to be sold.

Amazon’s update puts Mossy Hill’s expected operating date at November 2030, leaving several years of project execution before the contract can begin to be supported by physical generation. During that period, Statkraft must progress the site through construction, electrical installation, commissioning and network energisation.

The 36MW agreement gives part of that future output a named customer and adds another contracted renewable project to Amazon’s British portfolio. The next milestones are less commercial and more physical: equipment must be delivered, the connection completed and the wind farm commissioned before the PPA can move from an agreement on paper to electricity flowing through the system.