Climate Politics

Amazon Says Japan Isn't Meeting Corporate Needs for Clean Power

Japan still relies on fossil fuels to generate more than 70% of its power.

Solar panels near the Nanao Ohta thermal power plant in Nanao, Japan.

Photographer: Soichiro Koriyama/Bloomberg

Amazon.com Inc., the world’s biggest corporate buyer of clean electricity, delivered a clear verdict on Japan’s energy policy earlier this month: The country isn’t moving quickly enough to deliver green power to the private sector.

“If a company with Amazon’s scale cannot procure power at scale in Japan, then there's something wrong with how we're enabling new projects to come online quickly enough to meet the demand that's growing,” Ken Haig, head of energy and environmental policy for the Asia-Pacific region for Amazon Web Services said at a Renewable Energy Institute conference in Tokyo. “There are many, many companies looking for renewable power here in Japan. We need more supply to meet that demand.”