Google has entered into the first corporate agreement to buy electricity from a U.S. power plant using carbon capture and storage in a deal to help fuel its data centers in the country’s Midwest region, the technology company said on Thursday.
Big Tech’s plans to expand technologies like generative artificial intelligence, which will require vast amounts of electricity, have butted up against the realities of a U.S. power grid running short on supplies.
That has led to a flurry of announcements in recent months by companies like Google to help fund the development of new and expanded power plants across the country.
Google’s recent deals have included purchasing electricity from advanced nuclear reactors, geothermal and hydropower. It is also working with the biggest U.S. power grid, PJM Interconnection, which covers the world’s largest concentration of data centers, to speed up the connection of new power supplies.
Google’s latest power offtake agreement involves a 400-megawatt power plant in Decatur, Illinois, which will be developed by privately held Low Carbon Infrastructure. It is expected to produce power using carbon capture, which involves trapping about 90% of CO2 emissions and injecting them underground, in the early 2030s.
Google did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
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.
“We’ve been really focused on advancing all these new technologies for around-the-clock clean technologies and this is an important piece of the puzzle,” Terrell said. “It’s a very important technology that the world needs.”
The Broadwing project will be built at an existing industrial site operated by agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland, which has been injecting carbon dioxide underground from ethanol production since 2017. ADM will also have the ability to purchase power from the operation, which will initially deliver electricity to the grid.
Google and Low Carbon Infrastructure said they plan to pursue additional CCS facilities in the United States, though they did not disclose specific locations or timelines.
Carbon capture and storage has been promoted by the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a tool to reduce emissions from fossil fuel-based power and heavy industry. However, critics have questioned its cost, scalability and long-term effectiveness.
(Reporting by Laila Kearney Editing by Marguerita Choy)