Google has entered into a deal to purchase electricity from a U.S. power plant that uses carbon capture and storage technology to fuel its Midwest data centers.
Big tech companies like Google have been exploring ways to generate sufficient electricity to power their energy-intensive data centers.
Google on Thursday announced a corporate agreement to support the Broadwing Energy project, which involves a 400-megawatt gas power plant with carbon capture storage (CCS) in Decatur, Illinois. The project is being developed by the privately held company Low Carbon Infrastructure.
The plant is expected to start operating in the early 2030s and will generate power using carbon capture technology, which can trap about 90% of carbon emissions and store them underground.
The project will be constructed at an existing industrial site operated by the agribusiness company Archer Daniels Midland, which has been using underground carbon dioxide from ethanol production since 2017.
“By agreeing to buy most of the power it generates, Google is helping get this new, baseload power source built and connected to the regional grid that supports our data centers,” Google said in a statement.
“We hope it will accelerate the path for CCS technology to become more accessible and affordable globally, helping to increase generating capacity while enabling emission reductions,” it added.
The company’s move to purchase additional power occurs at a time when the U.S. grid is struggling to meet energy demand due to the rise in data centers and artificial intelligence.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies in March forecast that by 2030, AI data centers in the United States will be consuming upward of 84 gigawatts. These same data centers only consumed about 4 gigawatts last year.
Google has sought to purchase more energy from other energy sources, like advanced nuclear reactors. In October, Google announced a deal with Kairos Power to purchase energy from a fleet of small modular reactors to support its data centers, with the first reactor coming online by 2030.
The big tech company told Reuters it plans to pursue more carbon capture and storage technology projects.
