Google has partnered with two Japanese renewable energy providers, Clean Energy Connect (CEC) and Shizen Energy, to build dedicated solar farms for its data centers in the country. The power purchase agreements with the two companies mark Google’s first such collaborations in Japan.
“The PPAs will add a total of 60 megawatts of new solar energy capacity to the Japanese grid, which will not only support Google’s data centers in the region but also align with Japan’s clean energy ambitions,” said Google Japan Vice President Shinji Okuyama.
The agreement with CEC, a partner of Itochu Corporation and Kansai Electric Power, involves a $63.9 million (10 billion Japanese yen) investment to build a network of 800 small-scale solar plants across multiple grid regions in Japan by 2026.
This decentralized approach addresses the challenges of large-scale solar projects in the country with a limited availability of land.
Meanwhile, Shizen Energy will develop a 20-megawatt solar project to support Google’s latest data center in Inzai City, Chiba prefecture. The project is expected to be fully operational in 2027.
Stating the initiative was “just the beginning of Google’s decarbonization efforts in the region,” the tech giant is committed to investing around $690 million (about 100 billion Japanese yen) into expanding its sustainable infrastructure in Japan. While renewable energy accounts for 90% of Google’s power consumption in the United States, Denmark, and Finland, it only provides 16% of its Japanese operations.
The PPAs are expected to last between 15 to 20 years, allowing Google to estimate the accurate cost of scaling its renewable energy projects to support upcoming data centers in Hiroshima and Wakayama prefectures.
Google’s decarbonization efforts in Japan will be marked by ‘non-fossil certificates,’ validating the source of the energy used by its data centers. The first certificate will be used by Google’s facility in Chiba Prefecture, Tokyo.
