en.Wedoany.com Reported - NTT West, the western Japan subsidiary of Japanese telecom operator NTT, has signed a geothermal virtual power purchase agreement with Furusato Thermal Power Co Ltd.

Under the agreement, NTT West will purchase non-fossil certificates generated from a 4.99MW geothermal power plant located in Kumamoto Prefecture. The project, named Waita No.2 Geothermal Power Plant, began commercial operations in March this year. The virtual power purchase agreement took effect on June 1 and is expected to continue until 2041.

This conventional geothermal power plant is expected to generate approximately 35,000 MWh of electricity annually, helping NTT West achieve its carbon neutrality target by 2040.

The Waita No.2 project was developed in collaboration with Waita-kai LLC, an organization representing local residents. Furusato Thermal Power is supported by global geothermal project developer Baseload Capital, which previously signed a 10MW power purchase agreement with Google in Taiwan.

Alexander Helling, CEO of Baseload Capital, stated that the significance of Waita No.2 lies not only in commissioning a geothermal power plant but also in demonstrating that geothermal development in Japan can be carried out in a way that builds local trust, aligns incentives, and creates a replicable model. This shifts the conversation from isolated projects to long-term market potential.

NTT West was established in 1999 and provides communication solutions, including fiber optic services, in western Japan. The company operates at least one data center in each of the 30 prefectures in western Japan, covering areas such as Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Hokuriku, Fukuoka, Nagoya, Hiroshima, and Ehime.

In recent years, several technology companies have signed geothermal power purchase agreements, some related to conventional geothermal projects, such as those by NTT West and Global Switch; others support enhanced geothermal system (EGS) projects, which promise higher capacity factors but have yet to achieve commercialization, with companies like Google, Amazon, and Meta participating.

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