ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will commence virtual PPA*1 services (hereinafter “virtual PPA”) for the long-term provision of environmental value in the form of electric power generated from renewable energy with additionality*2 in Japan to Google, Inc. (hereinafter “Google”) via Clean Energy Connect Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Teppei Uchida, Representative Director; hereinafter, “CEC”), an ITOCHU portfolio company.

ITOCHU invested in CEC in November 2021 in response to the growing need for renewable energy necessary for generative AI and data center operations. CEC currently develops and owns 1,200 non-FIT low-voltage solar power plants of over 100 MW, providing power and environmental value to customers over the long term.

CEC has now signed a virtual PPA agreement with Google. Services will commence in 2024, with approximately 72 MW (or about 800 plants) of dedicated solar power plants for Google to be developed by 2026.

Shinji Okuyama, Vice President of Google Japan, offered his comments on the agreement, showing that the scheme is an initiative in response to customer needs. “We have set an ambitious 2030 goal to run on 24/7 carbon-free energy on every grid where we operate and this power purchase agreement brings us one step closer to achieving it. Through this project we are enabling an aggregated network of small-scale-solar plants across multiple grid regions to support our Inzai Data Center and our growth in Japan.”

ITOCHU will work together to achieve CEC’s target of introducing approximately 5,000 solar power plants with additionality in Japan by FY2025, with a cumulative total output of 500MW, through developing new customers and providing power management services using power trading functionality.

*1: Introducing power supply from new renewable energy sources without relying on the FIT program, such as by newly building a power plant exclusively for use by a company.

*2: Overview of Virtual PPA services

With this service, CEC develops and consolidates multiple small-scale solar power plants, providing environmental value from this renewable energy to customers. Generated power is contributed to electricity wholesale market.

*3: This refers to matching Google’s energy needs with the supply of carbon-free energy at all times every day in all regions in which Google operates.