Technology giant Google, looking for ways to power a growing fleet of data centers and meet ambitious climate goals, has an agreement to buy power from a natural gas-fired project planned in central Illinois that would capture most of its carbon emissions.
The agreement, announced by Google on Thursday, calls for the company to buy most of the output from the 400-megawatt Broadwing project under development near the Archer Daniels Midland plant in Decatur, Illinois. ADM would also buy power and steam from the plant.
The developer, Houston-based Low Carbon Infrastructure, said the plant will capture 90 percent of the carbon dioxide, which will be injected more than a mile underground via an existing storage well.
Michael Terrell, head of advanced energy at Google, said in the blog post that the agreement can help get the plant built and connected to the grid to feed the company’s data centers. As one of the first gas plants equipped with carbon capture and storage technology, the company sees broader significance, too.
