Google's Illinois Deal Just Gave CCS Its First Real Market

For years, carbon capture and storage had an image problem. Projects stalled, costs ran high, and the technology struggled to find a real commercial footing. That's starting to change, and the force driving it isn't a government mandate or a climate pledge. It's AI.

Data centers powering artificial intelligence are among the fastest-growing electricity consumers in the world. The U.S. Electric Power Research Institute estimates they could account for between 4.6% and 9.1% of U.S. power consumption by 2030. That insatiable demand is now creating something the CCS industry has been waiting for: genuine commercial pull at scale.

>> In Other News: [x](x)

Google Makes History in Decatur, Illinois

In October 2025, Google signed the first-ever corporate power purchase agreement for electricity generated by a natural gas plant with integrated carbon capture and storage. The plant is called Broadwing Energy Center, developed by Low Carbon Infrastructure (LCI), a portfolio company of I Squared Capital, at an existing Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility in Decatur, Illinois.

The 400-MW combined heat and power plant will use Mitsubishi Power's M501JAC gas turbine paired with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries' proven carbon capture technology, storing the captured CO2 in ADM's EPA-approved Class VI wells, more than a mile underground. ADM has been safely injecting CO2 at that site since 2011, with more than 4 million metric tons permanently stored to date. That track record gives the project a level of geological credibility that most CCS proposals can't match.

Construction begins in 2026. Commercial operations are targeted for late 2029, with the CCS component coming fully online by early 2030. Google will purchase most of the plant's output to power its regional data centers, providing the long-term revenue certainty that makes a project like this financeable.

The deal does something that policy alone has never been able to do: it creates a replicable financial model. Google's long-term offtake agreement provides the bankable revenue that lenders and project developers need to move forward. It also introduces a new type of environmental attribute certificate specifically designed for CCS-sourced power, making it easier for other companies to account for these credits in their emissions reporting.

The Oil Majors Are Paying Attention

Google's deal didn't happen in isolation. Across the energy industry, major players are moving quickly to position gas-plus-CCS as the go-to power solution for data centers, and ExxonMobil is one of the most aggressive movers.

>> RELATED: US Carbon Capture Race: $77B Industry Shifts Global Balance

ExxonMobil revealed plans for a 1.5+ GW natural gas plant with CCS built specifically for data center clients, capturing more than 90% of emissions. The facility would operate off-grid, bypassing utility timelines and the grid interconnection bottlenecks that slow down other large-scale power projects. Chevron, partnering with Engine No. 1, is pursuing a similar model at up to 4 GW of co-located electricity capacity. Meanwhile, Frontier Infrastructure and Baker Hughes announced a 256-MW gas-plus-CCS project tied to Wyoming's Sweetwater carbon storage hub.

ExxonMobil has been clear about its thesis: data centers could account for up to 20% of the total addressable CCS market by 2050. That's not a footnote, it's a strategic pivot. The company already has agreements to sequester roughly 9 million tons of CO2 per year along the Gulf Coast, building what it describes as the world's first large-scale end-to-end CCS system.

What's Actually Different This Time

Past CCS projects were largely built on policy incentives, which made them vulnerable to political shifts. This new wave is being pulled by private-sector demand, and that's a fundamentally different dynamic. Hyperscalers like Google need reliable, around-the-clock power that also meets their emissions commitments. Renewables alone can't guarantee baseload. Nuclear takes too long. Gas with CCS can be built in a commercially viable timeframe and delivers exactly the firm, low-carbon power these companies need.

The companies leading this charge, including those tracked in the global CCUS expansion, are betting that the data center boom will do for CCS what electric vehicles did for batteries: force the technology down the cost curve through sheer demand volume.

A Commercial Blueprint, Not Just a Pilot

What makes the Google-Broadwing deal particularly significant is that it's not a research project or a demonstration. It's a commercial transaction with a creditworthy buyer, a proven storage site, and a clear path to scale. As AI power needs keep climbing, expect more of these deals, and not just from Google.

The data center sector has done something that years of climate policy struggled to accomplish. It created a market. And markets, once they get moving, tend to move fast.