Microsoft has signed a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Japanese energy firm Shizen Energy for 100MW of solar power in Japan.

The power will be supplied from four solar projects in the Kyushu and Chugoku regions of Japan. According to Shizen, all four projects have reached financial close, and one in the Kyushu region has commenced operations.

The remaining three are currently under construction. Shizen’s operation and asset management subsidiary, Shizen Operations, will manage all four projects upon reaching operational status.

Exact details on the location and capacity of the four projects, as well as the length of the renewable supply agreements, were not disclosed. DCD has reached out to the company for further information.

Commenting on the agreement, Rei Ushikubo, executive officer of Shizen Energy, said: “Following the Inuyama Project, we are honored to have signed long-term agreements with Microsoft for several new projects. We believe that securing financing from domestic and international financial institutions for these projects is proof of the growing presence of Renewable Power Purchase Agreements in the Japanese market. We will continue to prioritize our power purchase agreement business to support our customers’ decarbonization efforts.”

The agreements are the second between the two companies. In October 2023, the companies signed a 20-year virtual PPA, which was Microsoft's first in the Japanese market. The PPA is tied to a 25MW solar farm in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture.

Founded in 2011, Shizen is a Japanese energy developer. It has developed projects across several regions, including Southeast Asia, Brazil, and Japan. In 2019, it diversified into the energy technology sector. As part of this move, it began offering solutions such as micro-grids, virtual power plants, and smart EV charging services through its proprietary energy management system. As of 2024, it has more than 1GW of installed capacity worldwide.

Microsoft currently has two data center facilities in the Japanese market, which were opened in 2014. Japan East is located in the Saitama Prefecture near Tokyo, while Japan West is in the Osaka Prefecture. Last April, Microsoft company president Brad Smith announced that the company planned to invest $2.9 billion in building out data center capacity in Japan over the next year, citing the Japanese government’s moves to increase the nation’s computing power in the wake of the AI boom.

Several major data center operators have signed renewable supply agreements in Japan this year. Last month, Google signed a virtual PPA with Jera to power its data center in Inzai, Chiba Prefecture.

Before this, in January, Amazon signed two PPAs in the country, with EDP Renewables APAC and X-Elio.