Pacifico Energy targets 2.9 GWh of BESS installations in Japan by 2030

Pacifico Energy, a renewables company with divisions in the United States and the Asia-Pacific region, has consolidated its plans to corner the Japanese battery energy storage (BESS) market.

“Looking ahead, we plan to further scale up our operations and achieve 660MW/2.9GWh of installations by 2030,” said Hiroki Matsuo, President & CEO, Pacifico Energy K.K. – which is based in Tokyo, Japan.

Matsuo was commenting following Pacifico Energy’s start of commercial operations for a 2MW/10 MWh grid-scale BESS in the Tokyo area, dubbed the Koganai ESS Project, which began construction in May 2025.

It is fully self-funded as part of what Pacifico termed a full merchant model, developed without government subsidies. It will participate in Japan’s wholesale electricity and balancing market, and derive revenue from daily electricity market participation while supporting the grid.

“We take great pride and find deep meaning in boldly taking on the challenge of operating as a full-merchant player, independent of subsidies, in the complex and unpredictable wholesale power market. This approach is grounded in our proprietary market analysis and trading methodologies, as well as the strong track record we have built since entering the market in 2022,” said Matsuo.

As well as Japan, Pacifico has operations in Korea and Vietnam. Its corporate headquarters are located in California. It is currently developing several projects in the United States, including its flagship off-grid GW Ranch in Texas, which is being purpose-built for hyperscale data centers. It will combine 5 GW of dispatchable generators with 1.8 GW of BESS by the time it is fully completed in 2030.

In an interview with ESS News, Dhiraj Shangari, Chief Financial Officer of Pacifico Energy, said the company primarily assesses where it’s going to build projects based on market demand. “Japan is core to this entity and our success,” he said, speaking in global terms.

“When we say we’ve deployed over $5 billion, built more than a gigawatt and a half [of renewables], now stand behind a nearly 10 gigawatt development pipeline… a lot of that comes from Japan in bulk share, right? Japan, for all things considered, is an incredibly stable market that we know of.”

He said Japan’s transition from fossil fuels to nuclear and renewable sources means grid stability is an urgent priority, and Pacifico sees this demand – both for more renewables and more stability – as a commercial advantage. In May 2025, ESS News reported that Japan awarded 1.4 GW of BESS in its second long-term decarbonization auction.

“Once you have renewables in the grid, the volatility of power increases,” said Shangari. “And hence, to meet that demand from our customers, the battery enables us to answer that question – and that’s really where the strategy is pivoting to. It’s responsive to the customer need. We have noticed the corporate power purchase agreement (cPPA) market advancing in Japan. In terms of heavy industrial load, industries are picking that up quite substantially.”