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An Amazon data center in Morrow County.

(Port of Morrow photo)

Amazon, which operates large data centers in Morrow County, is the latest large tech company to pledge to use renewable power at its server farms.

Data centers consume huge amounts of energy to power thousands of high-octane computers and to cool those hardworking machines. As a result, the industry has become a target for environmentalists concerned about the effect of electricity generation on climate change.

Oregon has one of the nation's largest cluster of data centers, owing primarily to mammoth tax exemptions that can save data center operators tens of millions of dollars every year on their property taxes. The state also has a large supply of clean, relatively cheap energy from the Bonneville Power Administration's hydroelectric projects.

When Facebook opened its first corporate data enter in Prineville, though, the company became a target for Greenpeace because the social networking company bought its energy from PacifiCorp, which relies on coal for a lot of its electricity. Soon after, Facebook pledged to seek renewable power for its data centers.

Apple and Google, which also operate large Oregon data centers, had already made similar promises. Amazon, though, had been less specific about its energy sources and that earned it an "F" grade from Greenpeace earlier this year, even though Amazon's facilities in Morrow County draw their energy from BPA dams.

Amazon Web Services, which rents space in its facilities to other companies that need cloud-computing capacity, wrote on its website that it "has a long-term commitment to achieve 100% renewable energy usage for our global infrastructure footprint."

The company did not immediately respond to an inquiry seeking additional detail.

The science behind climate change is fiercely disputed in political circles but not in the tech community. Apple, Facebook, Intel and many other large power users say they accept scientific findings that human activities are changing the climate and say they are working to reduce their own impact.

Greenpeace called Amazon's renewable energy commitment "a potential breakthrough," but said it wants more information on how the company plans to move to clean energy. Since Northwest hydropower is already operating at full capacity, Greenpeace said it wants Amazon to find additional sources of clean power to support its growth in Oregon.

-- Mike Rogoway; twitter: @rogoway; phone: 503-294-7699