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Jeff Bezos Christens New Texas Wind Farm in Ridiculous Twitter Video
The second richest man in America smashed a champagne bottle on top of a 300-foot-tall wind turbine.
By Dan Shafer July 13, 2022
The second richest man in America smashed a champagne bottle on top of a 300-foot-tall wind turbine.
Today is HQ2 deadline day, and with the eyes of the world on Amazon, CEO and founder Jeff Bezos tweeted out a video of him standing atop a giant wind turbine, and christening it by smashing a champagne bottle, and posing heroically as a drone camera zoomed out to show the company’s massive new 100-turbine wind farm in Texas.
Yes, this is real, and it’s amazing and hilarious and confusing and kind of stupid but mostly great. The sheer absurdity of it all is truly a wonder.
Take a look:
We have so many questions.
How did he get up there? Why is he up there? Was this Bezos’ own idea? Did this happen in one take, or were many bottles smashed on top of this wind turbine? Is the second richest American still up there? How is he getting down? Is that harness just for safety, or do you climb 300-foot turbines for fun when you’re worth $80 billion? Does this have HQ2 implications? Is this going to become a trend? Will Bezos christen all new Amazon structures by standing on top of them and smashing champagne bottles? How hilarious is it that he referred to this as a “fun day”?
I think I’d watch a multi-part documentary or read an oral history about the making of this 23-second video.
Oh, right. It has a point.
Amazon announced today that it is launching a massive wind farm in Snyder, Texas, that will feature more than 100 turbines and will generate enough energy to power more than 330,000 homes.
See the full news release on the project below:
Amazon Launches Biggest Wind Farm Yet – Company’s Renewable Energy Projects Will Together Generate Enough Clean Energy to Power More Than 330,000 Homes
Amazon Wind Farm Texas will generate over 1,000,000 MWh of clean wind energy each year
Amazon has launched 18 wind and solar projects across the U.S., with more to come
SEATTLE & SNYDER, Texas–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 19, 2017– (NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon today announced that its largest wind farm yet—Amazon Wind Farm Texas—is now up and running, adding more than 1,000,000 MWh of clean energy to the grid each year. Amazon has launched 18 wind and solar projects across the U.S., with over 35 more to come. Together, these projects will generate enough clean energy to power over 330,000 homes annually. These projects also support hundreds of jobs and provide tens of millions of dollars of investment in local communities across the country.
Amazon Wind Farm Texas includes more than 100 turbines – each over 300 feet tall with a rotor diameter more than twice the wingspan of a Boeing 787. Amazon Wind Farm Texas is built, owned, and operated by Lincoln Clean Energy (LCE), an I Squared Capital portfolio company and a leading developer of wind and solar projects across the U.S. Amazon, LCE, and local officials and residents celebrated the grand opening of the wind farm with a BBQ event onsite. To thank and support the local community, Amazon is donating $50,000 to the Snyder Education Foundation to provide students and teachers with STEM learning opportunities.
“Investing in renewable energy is a win-win-win-win – it’s right for our customers, our communities, our business, and our planet,” said Kara Hurst, Amazon’s Worldwide Director of Sustainability. “We now have 18 wind and solar projects across the U.S. with more than 35 projects to come. These are important steps toward reaching our long-term goal to power our global infrastructure using 100% renewable energy. We’d like to thank the leaders at LCE, the Scurry County community, and our partners across the country who are helping us continue to bring new renewable energy online.”
“I applaud Amazon’s leadership in supporting renewable power. Corporations like Amazon have become a major force in the transition to renewable power, and with their involvement, we look forward to producing power in Scurry County for years to come,” said Declan Flanagan, founder and CEO of LCE.
“Scurry County has long been a hub for the energy industry and we’re excited to expand our commitment to wind power generation with Amazon and LCE. The wind industry has boosted the Texas economy with jobs, revenue to area landowners, and property taxes that support our schools,” said Scurry County Judge Ricky Fritz.
In addition to its investment in renewable energy, Amazon’s commitment to sustainability includes innovations like Frustration-Free Packaging programs, which eliminated more than 55,000 tons of packaging last year, the District Energy system at its HQ in Seattle that heats more than 3 million square feet of office space using recycled heat from a nearby non-Amazon data center, and more. You can learn about Amazon’s sustainability and environmental work at www.amazon.com/sustainability.