ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that on March 18th, commercial operation of first unit at the Sarulla Geothermal IPP Project (“the Project,” hereinafter) commenced. ITOCHU takes part in this world’s largest class geothermal power plant project.

This is a geothermal development project being pursued through the subsidiaries owned by ITOCHU and investment partners as well as jointly established operating company, Sarulla Operations Ltd. The project involves developing the geothermal resource concession owned by PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (PGE) in Indonesia’s Sarulla region in North Sumatra, constructing a geothermal plant with a capacity of 320.8 MW and selling the generated power to Indonesia’s state-owned electricity company, Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) over a period of 30 years. Output of the first unit is approximately 105.9 MW. Construction work is ongoing, with the second and third units expected to commence commercial operations in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

Indonesia holds the world’s largest amount of geothermal resources, and the country positions geothermal energy as its strategic power source. This independent power producer (IPP) project is the largest single contract geothermal power project in the world.

Total overseas and domestic renewable energy-based power generating capacity handled by ITOCHU, including this project, has now reached 1,960 MW. Through this project, ITOCHU Corporation will provide a stable supply of electric power in Indonesia while actively promoting power generation projects that utilize low-emission and renewable energy sources such as geothermal and wind power.