Trina Solar Japan Energy signed a 20-year off-site PPA, its first in the country, with data center provider Equinix, the companies announced on April 2, 2025.
Under the agreement, a Trina Solar Japan Energy-affiliated special purpose company plans to supply about 36GWh per year generated by the 30MW Yufutsu-Abira power plant it is developing in Hokkaido to Equinix from the third quarter of 2028.
“The agreement marks Trina Solar ISBU’s [International Systems Business Unit] big step forward from a pure renewable solution provider to a clean energy supplier in Japan,” said the company. Trina Solar Japan Energy, which specializes in project development, EPC, and operations and maintenance, completed over 200MW of solar projects in the country.
Equinix currently operates multiple data centers in Tokyo and Osaka. “Our first PPA in Japan empowers our customers to confidently pursue aggressive decarbonization objectives, knowing the energy consumption of their data center operations at Equinix is covered by renewable energy,” said Equinix Japan’s Managing Director and President Kuniko Ogawa.
The PPA comes at a time when, as Ogawa noted, AI and other technologies “continue to expand rapidly, increasing data centers’ energy demands.” In its 10-year power demand forecast published in January 2025, OCCTO expects data center-related peak demand to increase from 470MW in FY2025 to 6.16GW in FY2034.
Japan Energy Hub’s PPA database shows that multiple other data center providers signed PPAs in the past. Most recently prior to Equinix’s announcement, at the end of January 2025, Amazon disclosed it secured 65MW of solar through four deals.
