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Amazon and Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) jointly announced they have signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) for a 22 MW solar project in Japan.
Operated by MC’s retail subsidiary, MC Retail Energy, the unique solar project is aggregated, which means that it is made up of numerous ground-mounted solar installations currently in development across more than 450 sites throughout the Greater Tokyo and Tohoku areas. The project is expected to come online progressively in 2022 and 2023, and once all installations become operational, the entire project is expected to generate 23 000 MWh of renewable electricity each year, which is equivalent to annually powering more than 5600 average households in Japan. This is the first aggregated solar project of this scale to be backed by a corporate PPA in Japan, helping to pave the way for new approaches to purchasing renewable energy in the country.
“This is our first renewable energy project in Japan that will help Amazon meet our commitment to power our worldwide operations with 100% renewable energy by 2030, a target we are on a path to meet five years early thanks to projects like this,” said Nat Sahlstrom, Director of Amazon Energy. “This solar project, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Corporation, is important to our renewable energy commitment in the Asia Pacific region, where corporations often face challenges in procuring renewable energy due to limited availability, regulatory complexity, and high costs. As a first-of-its-kind corporate PPA in Japan, it will also help to increase the availability and affordability of renewable energy in the country for others by enabling new capacity beyond what is available in the grid today. We continue to work with private and public partners in the region to unlock more renewable energy procurement options for corporations in Asia Pacific.”
“This solar project with Amazon is a big milestone for MC, Japan, and our shared renewable energy commitment to the country,” said Yuji Okafuji, Division COO of MC. “West Holdings will handle the construction of the Japan project alongside MC. This is the second renewable energy corporate PPA signed between MC and Amazon globally. The first was a PPA signed by Amazon and MC’s subsidiary Eneco for an offshore wind project in the Netherlands. While MC remains committed to its own efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and there is a need to introduce climate change countermeasures at a global scale, reduction of carbon emissions in business activities by switching to renewable energy is a top priority for many companies. MC endeavours to expand the use of renewable energy and is dedicated to the decarbonisation of the planet.”
Amazon is the world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy with over 230 wind and solar projects around the world totalling 10 GW of capacity. Corporate renewable energy investments are already one of the largest drivers for new renewable projects in many parts of the world today. With this first-of-its-kind renewable energy agreement in Japan, Amazon and MC are helping to scale corporate renewable energy procurement options in the country, bringing associated green jobs and investments to more parts of Japan – all without relying on public subsidies or increasing the burden on Japanese taxpayers or ratepayers. Amazon and MC have a long history of working together and AWS will continue to support MC with cloud services to advance its digital transformation and accelerate innovation around MC’s cloud-enabled energy management solutions.
