
On January 15, 2025, JR East announced two off-site PPAs. The agreements will supply renewable energy to Tohoku TSO area portions of the Yamagata and Akita Shinkansen lines, as well as to two station buildings in the Tokyo TSO area.
The Shinkansen-related PPA was signed on December 5, 2024, with Tohoku Electric Power. As part of the agreement, Tohoku EPCO will supply JR East with approximately 35GWh per year sourced from 21MW of solar power plants owned by undisclosed generators. The companies did not disclose whether the power plants are already operational or will be newly developed.
According to JR East and Tohoku EPCO’s statement, power supply is expected to begin in April 2025. The power will be used to cover approximately 20% of Yamagata Shinkansen’s consumption between Fukushima and Shinjo stations and Akita Shinkansen’s consumption between Morioka and Akita stations in the Tohoku TSO area. It will account for approximately 2% of overall JR East Shinkansen’s power consumption.
The station building-related PPA, which was signed on January 14, 2025, will see JERA supply power from 42 solar power plants in the Tokyo TSO area totaling approximately 2MW to Atre Oimachi and Lumine Yokohama through JR East’s subsidiary and power retail license holder East Japan Railway Trading. The power plants will be aggregated by JERA’s wholly-owned subsidiary JERA Cross.
J Bio Food Recycle, a joint venture between JFE Group and JR East Group companies, will supply additional undisclosed volume of power generated using biogas produced from JR East Group station buildings’ food waste as part of the multi-technology PPA.
The Japan Energy Hub PPA database shows that while JR West signed multiple PPAs to power its Shinkansen lines, this is the first time for JR East to do so. That said, last year, JR East signed a 1.2MW onshore wind PPA with Tohoku EPCO to power its Tohoku Headquarters.