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By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,
Amazon has offered $83 million to buy solar energy and storage in Eastern Oregon to power its data centers, but a state council needs to sign off on the deal before it’s finalized. The Sunstone project sold to Amazon in the Pine Gate Renewables bankruptcy court auction in January, but the Oregon Energy Facility Siting Council must approve the purchase before Amazon owns the 1,200 megawatts of solar power and 7,200-megawatt hours of energy storage on 17 square miles in Morrow County. Amazon, among many companies seeking to power new AI data centers throughout the United States, has contended PacifiCorp failed to meet its obligations to supply power to data centers in Eastern Oregon, an allegation PacifiCorp denies.
Data centers have become huge energy consumers which has in some cases reduced available supply and driven up electricity costs for the region. Below is a chart to see how electricity rates have climbed over 50% since 2022.
