Tech giant Google has announced that it has struck the first corporate power-purchase agreement in the U.S. tied to a fossil-fuel plant enabled by carbon capture and storage (CCS) in support of its Midwestern data-center footprint.
The deal involves a 400-megawatt facility in Decatur, Illinois, to be developed by privately held Low Carbon Infrastructure and located on an industrial campus operated by agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland.
The Broadwing Energy plant will deploy a CO2 injection system to sequester roughly 90% of its emissions and is slated to go online in the early 2030s. Google declined to share the financial terms of the contract.
One of many decarbonization paths for Google
Google noted that its deal represents a new front in the push to meet growing electricity demand while decarbonizing. “Natural gas-fired power that is produced while capturing and storing carbon dioxide had been missing from the equation,” said Michael Terrell, head of Advanced Energy at Google. “It’s a very important technology that the world needs.”
The agreement acknowledges that as Big Tech expands intensely energy-hungry activities such as generative artificial intelligence, the U.S. power grid is under pressure to supply reliable, large-scale capacity.
John Thompson, Technology and Markets Director at the global climate and energy NGO Clean Air Task Force commented on the announcement: “It’s an important milestone to see a company like Google invest in carbon capture to proactively address its emissions across its energy supply chain. With U.S. energy demand projected to grow, any new gas plants should be capturing their emissions.”
The firm is one of the largest corporate buyers of clean energy and is involved in a variety of efforts in the carbon removal space where it directly works with companies or uses the Frontier Climate coalition.
Relevant: The Frontier Coalition Makes A $41M Carbon Credits Purchase From Arbor
In 2024 alone, Google reported more than $100 million in contracted carbon removal credits, tripling its commitments from 2023. Spanning biomass capture, biochar, enhanced rock weathering and direct air capture the company has been one of the pillars of the growing industry.
The company continues emphasizing that its goal is net-zero emissions across operations and the full value chain by 2030 even while demand from AI is growing rapidly.
Natural gas and carbon capture
This combined approach that uses both fossil fuels and a decarbonization technology has drawn attention from other hyperscalers.
Meta is reportedly also looking into incorporating carbon capture technology into its future operations. The company is developing a sprawling data-center complex in Louisiana that could eventually exceed 4 million square feet.
To supply the project, Entergy Louisiana intends to construct three new natural gas turbines dedicated to the Franklin Farm campus with what can be described as carbon capture-ready units that can be retrofitted in the future.
In a recent report from carbon management services company Carbon Direct, the firm explains that to support surging electricity demand from data centres, AI and cloud computing, natural-gas-fired generation paired with carbon capture offers a “practical way to balance long-term climate commitments with the need for new electricity generation in the near term.”
The report underscores that only truly “capture-committed” facilities (where CO2 capture, transport and geological storage are embedded in project planning from day one) will deliver on the climate promise. It notes that retrofits or simply capture-ready plants rarely succeed and estimates that levelised cost of electricity with CCS can increase by 50% to 100% compared with unabated gas generation.
There are also risks when it comes to carbon storage. Archer Daniels Midland identified a leak at one of its wells causing brine and CO2 to migrate into unauthorized underground zones and paused injections at another storage site for 10 months.
Work at that site will be resumed and though there was no harmful leakage and the EPA monitoring protocols were activated, the episode highlights the complexity of permanent CO2 storage.
CATF’s Thompson emphasizes that “This project in Illinois would be one of the first gas power plants of this size to use carbon capture in the country, demonstrating clearly that we have the technology to prevent CO2 emissions and that unabated gas should no longer be a choice. What’s important now is that Google and its partners execute this project, safely and transparently — in collaboration with state officials and active participation by the public — to deliver real climate benefit.”
As Google embarks on this landmark offtake with a new gas-fired, CCS-enabled plant, the deal may send a signal that major technology users are willing to help shore up firm, reliable power by underwriting advanced fossil-fuel systems, even as they continue investing in renewables and removals.
Read more: Can Carbon Capture Clean Up Natural Gas For The Data Center Boom?
