Amazon to have wind farm built in Texas
Amazon.com Inc. hired Lincoln Clean Energy LLC to build a 253-megawatt wind project in Texas to help power its data centers.
The development in Scurry County will be the online retailer's largest renewable-energy project to date, Amazon said in a statement late last week. It will include more than 100 turbines and is scheduled to be operational in late 2017, producing enough electricity to power almost 90,000 U.S. homes.
Amazon will buy about 90 percent of the power from the wind farm. Other technology companies including Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. have struck similar deals with wind and solar companies to directly purchase clean energy for their facilities.
"Direct purchasing by large, long-term thinking customers like Amazon has quickly become a key driver of the transition to renewable power across the U.S.," Declan Flanagan, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Lincoln Clean Energy, said in the statement.
Amazon previously announced plans for wind and solar farms in Indiana, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia.
-- Bloomberg News
EU court backs providers of free Wi-Fi
BERLIN -- The European Union's highest court has ruled that the manager of a business offering free Wi-Fi to customers can't be held liable for copyright infringements by users.
A Munich court sought a judgment from the European Court of Justice in a dispute between the manager of a sound-system shop and Sony's German branch. It centers on a 2010 episode in which music was illegally offered for downloading through the shop's Wi-Fi network.
The Luxembourg-based EU court said recently that a service provider such as the shop owner can't be held liable so long as he didn't initiate the offending data transmission, select its recipient, or select or modify the information in that transmission.
However, it said EU rules would allow for an injunction ordering that the Internet connection be password-protected as a deterrent.
-- The Associated Press
Airline touts jet fuel from waste gases
A company partnered with Virgin Atlantic Ltd. has created a "green" jet fuel made from waste industrial gases from steel mills.
LanzaTech Inc., based in Skokie, Ill., produced 1,500 gallons of the fuel known as Lanzanol. It's made from ethanol created through a fermentation process. It's estimated to be 65 percent cleaner than conventional jet fuel, according to a statement on Virgin Atlantic's website.
"This is a real game changer for aviation and could significantly reduce the industry's reliance on oil within our lifetime," said Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group Ltd. "Virgin Atlantic was the first commercial airline to test a biofuel flight and continues to be a leader in sustainable aviation."
Aviation is one of the most polluting industries in the world. Low oil prices have largely deterred the development of alternative fuels, such as biofuels and carbon-based substitutes. Demand for cleaner fuels from airlines has dropped as the price of kerosene, which is burned in plane engines, has more than halved since June 2014.
LanzaTech partnered with Virgin Atlantic in 2011 and will also work with Boeing Co., according to the statement. The product requires testing before it can be approved for its first use in a commercial plane.
LanzaTech plans to build a commercial "green" jet fuel plant to supply Virgin Atlantic and other airlines and is considering building it in the U.K.
-- Bloomberg News
Mayor of London vows help for cabbies
Four months into his new job as mayor of London, Sadiq Khan is pledging new measures to protect the city's taxi drivers. Just as long as they're driving one of the city's traditional black cabs and not an Uber.
The mayor's office said recently that the city's transport authority will incorporate taxi booking information into its Transport for London journey planner mobile app by "summer 2017." It will allow tourists and local residents seeking a travel itinerary to be shown routes and times available using the capital's traditional cab services in addition to other forms of public transportation.
Starting later this year, black taxis will also be able to drive in an additional 20 lanes through the city that are typically reserved for buses. Private hire vehicles, such as those from Uber Technologies Inc., can't take advantage of these less busy routes through traffic. A 20 percent increase in the number of taxi ranks, or designated pickup locations, throughout London is also planned to take place by 2020.
Measures previously announced by the city and contested in court by Uber, include a requirement for all private hire drivers to pass an English language exam.
In August, Elvidge said the legal action against the city over such requirements was "very much a last resort." On Sept. 1, a U.K. judge allowed Uber's court challenge to go ahead.
-- Bloomberg News
Amazon adding audiobooks to Prime
SEATTLE -- Amazon.com is adding audiobooks and podcasts to its burgeoning buffet of perks for Prime members.
The Seattle-based company is expected to make some content from its audiobooks subsidiary, Audible.com, free to U.S. shoppers who pay for the $99-a-year Prime loyalty program.
That includes unlimited access to Audible Channels, a collection of short-form audio series that include podcasts by CNET and the Onion, as well as original programs. Audible usually charges $4.95 a month for access to the full Channels lineup.
In addition, Amazon will throw in a rotating selection of 50 audiobooks.
The move shows how Amazon marshals its somewhat disparate array of businesses into making the Prime membership a more compelling deal for customers.
Prime's value centers on unlimited two-day shipping, but increasingly media content is becoming a key component of the offer.
Members get a streaming video service that has earned critical acclaim; the company has said it would double spending on video content in the second half of 2016 compared with the previous year. Then there's a limited-catalog streaming music service, and now, audio.
Analysts with Piper Jaffray estimate that between 57 million and 61 million U.S. households have signed up with Prime. That could mean between $5.6 billion and $6 billion in annual revenue, a sizable chunk for a company that in 2015 reported $107 billion on its top line.
-- The Seattle Times
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