Japan Semiconductor Corporation, a Toshiba group company, has signed a virtual Power Purchase Agreement (vPPA) with Waita Second Geothermal Power for approximately 19.6GWh of geothermal energy per year.
The 15-year deal took effect at the beginning of June 2026 and covers environmental certificates derived from the Waita No. 2 Geothermal Power Plant in Oguni Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, which began commercial operation in March 2026 with an installed capacity of around 5MW and an estimated annual generation of 35GWh.
Under the terms of the virtual PPA, Japan Semiconductor will acquire the renewable certificates tied to the project rather than the energy itself.
The company claims that the agreement will support a significant reduction in its carbon emissions, with a fall of up to 9,251 tons of CO2 per year. The vPPA forms a crucial part of Toshiba’s push to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across all its manufacturing sites by fiscal year 2030.
Japan Semiconductor is a developer and manufacturer of microcontrollers, analog ICs, power semiconductors, and related components. It has facilities in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture, and Oita.
The company is not the first to secure offtake from the Waita No. 2 geothermal power, which commenced operations in March of this year. The company also inked a vPPA with NTT’s western Japanese unit, NTT West, for capacity from the project.
The Waita No. 2 project was developed in collaboration with Waita-kai LLC, an organization representing residents in the local area. Furusato is backed by Baseload Capital, a global developer of geothermal projects, which previously signed a 10MW PPA with Google in Taiwan.
Several tech companies have signed geothermal PPAs in recent years, some tied to conventional projects, such as NTT West and Global Switch, while others have backed Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), which promise much higher capacity factors but have yet to be commercialized. Firms to back EGS projects include Google, Amazon, and Meta.