Nozomi Energy Reaches Financial Close on 196MWh Battery Storage Project in Japan
Actis subsidiary Nozomi Energy reached financial close on September 14, 2026, on a 50MW/196MWh battery storage project in Oita Prefecture, Japan.
Photo by Enric Cruz López on Pexels
Nozomi Energy, the Japan-focused renewable energy platform backed by sustainable infrastructure investor Actis, reached financial close on September 14, 2026, on its Nozu Battery Energy Storage System (BESS), a 50MW/196MWh project in Usuki City, Oita Prefecture, on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu. The developer secured non-recourse project financing from the Japanese commercial bank Aozora Bank, though financial terms were not disclosed, according to Energy-Storage.News and Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
Construction on the Nozu project is scheduled to begin immediately, with commissioning targeted for the third quarter of 2028. The project was awarded a 20-year, consumer price index-linked capacity payment contract under Japan’s FY2023 Long-Term Decarbonisation Power Source Auction (LTDA), the country’s first mechanism offering long-term contracted revenue to battery storage operators.
How the LTDA capacity market works
Japan’s national association of transmission system operators, OCCTO, ran the first LTDA in FY2023, awarding contracts to 1.67GW of energy storage: 32 BESS bids totalling 1.1GW and three pumped hydro projects totalling 577MW. Nozomi Energy won two of those contracts, each for 37MW of capacity, before combining and reshaping its award into the larger Nozu project now reaching financial close. The scheme pays fixed, CPI-linked capacity revenue for 20 years, but requires operators to return 90% of any additional merchant profits above the contracted payments to OCCTO, a condition Energy-Storage.News reports limits the scheme’s appeal to some developers even as it improves bankability for lenders like Aozora Bank.
METI, Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, tightened the LTDA’s scope for the FY2025 auction, restricting fixed-revenue contracts to battery projects of six-hour duration or longer. That round selected 19 BESS projects totalling 1,251MW, down from 1.3GW of BESS awards in the FY2024 auction, which included a mix of three-to-six-hour and six-hour-plus projects.
| LTDA auction round | BESS capacity awarded | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| FY2023 (first LTDA) | 1.1 GW across 32 BESS bids (plus 577MW pumped hydro) | Nozomi Energy won two 37MW awards, later developed as the Nozu project |
| FY2024 | 1.3 GW awarded to BESS bids | 25 projects of 3-6 hour duration, plus longer-duration awards |
| FY2025 | 1,251 MW across 19 BESS projects | New rule restricted awards to 6-hour-or-longer duration |
Source: Energy-Storage.News, “Actis subsidiary Nozomi Energy closes financing on Japanese capacity market-winning BESS,” September 15, 2026.
Nozomi Energy’s wider buildout
Nozomi Energy president and chief executive Jose Antonio Millan Ruano said the Nozu project’s financial close demonstrates an ability “to originate, develop and finance complex renewable energy infrastructure in Japan” and marks the next stage of the developer’s growth “into flexible infrastructure,” according to Energy-Storage.News. Actis, the sustainable infrastructure investment arm of US growth equity firm General Atlantic, founded Nozomi Energy in 2023 as a $500 million renewable energy and storage platform focused on Japan. The developer currently has 521MW of operational assets and is targeting a combined 1.1GW portfolio of onshore wind, solar and battery storage by 2027.
The Nozu project is being built in a part of Kyushu that became a hotspot for renewable development after Japan introduced high feed-in tariffs nationwide in 2012. Nozomi Energy’s financial close follows a wider run of activity in Asia-Pacific battery storage financing that Winss Solutions has tracked, including India’s 84-fold jump in battery storage additions in the first half of 2026 and a record $25 billion drawn by co-located solar-and-storage projects globally in the first half of 2026.
Background
Actis is a London-headquartered sustainable infrastructure investor that became the dedicated infrastructure investment arm of US growth equity firm General Atlantic. It launched Nozomi Energy in 2023 as a $500 million platform to develop onshore wind, solar photovoltaic and battery storage assets across Japan. Nozomi Energy’s first project wins came in Japan’s inaugural LTDA capacity auction in FY2023, when it secured two 37MW battery storage contracts that have since been developed into the Nozu project now reaching financial close. Beyond Nozu, Nozomi Energy has said it is pursuing additional battery storage, onshore wind and solar developments as part of its push toward a 1.1GW portfolio by 2027, continuing its strategy of building long-term contracted infrastructure to support Japan’s decarbonizing power system.
Sources: Energy-Storage.News; Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
Featured image: photo by Enric Cruz López on Pexels (free Pexels license).
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I specialize in sustainability education, curriculum co-creation, and early-stage project strategy. At WINSS, I craft articles on sustainability, transformative AI, and related topics. When I’m not writing, you’ll find me chasing the perfect sushi roll, exploring cities around the globe, or unwinding with my dog Puffy — the world’s most loyal sidekick.
