Google, infrastructure investor I Squared Capital and its decarbonization-focused portfolio company Low Carbon Infrastructure (LCI) announced the launch of a new partnership, including an agreement to develop a large-scale natural gas power plant integrated with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology in the U.S., with Google purchasing most of the power generated by the project.
The project marks the first-ever corporate offtake agreement for a CCS-enabled power plant, and an expansion of Google’s portfolio of clean energy technologies aimed at helping the company address the climate impact of the energy needs of its rapidly growing data center footprint.
Google’s environmental targets include 2030 goals to reach net zero emissions across its operations and value chain. In the company’s recent Environmental Report, however, the company said that while it remains committed to its “climate moonshots,” achieving them will be more complex and challenging due to factors including the sharp growth in energy demand driven by AI, and a slower than needed deployment of carbon-free energy technologies.
Over the past several years, Google has pursued an increasingly broad range of technologies to address the carbon footprint of its energy usage, signing more than 170 agreements to purchase over 22 GW of clean energy generation since 2010, initially focused primarily on renewables, but more recently expanding to include geothermal, advanced nuclear, energy storage, and biomass solutions. Despite Google’s growing energy usage, the company reported that it managed to reduce the carbon emissions from its data centers by 12% in 2024.
In a post announcing the new CCS partnership with I Squared and LCI, Michael Terrell, Head of Advanced Energy at Google, said:
“Our goal is to help bring promising new CCS solutions to the market while learning and innovating quickly — the same approach we’ve taken with other energy technologies. Our collaboration with LCI will help fast-track critical technical and operational improvements, from continuing to raise CO2 capture rates to improving system performance and economics.”
Under the new agreement, the companies will develop Broadwing Energy, a new power plant with over 400 MW of generating capacity, integrated with CCS technology, on an existing Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) site in Decatur, Illinois. The plant will capture approximately 90% of its CO2 emissions, which will be permanently stored in ADM’s adjacent EPA-approved Class VI sequestration facilities more than a mile underground. Broadwing is anticipated to achieve commercial operation in 2030.
According to Google, the project is the first in a longer-term collaboration with I Squared and LCI to develop future CCS facilities in the U.S. and to demonstrate the deployment of CCS projects for power generation at commercial scale.
Jonathan Wiens, Chief Executive Officer of Low Carbon Infrastructure, said:
“Broadwing demonstrates that carbon capture can be commercially viable today. Working alongside I Squared and Google, we’re proving that low-carbon power can be both affordable and reliable, while driving job creation and community investment.”
Gautam Bhandari, Global Chief Investment Officer and Managing Partner, I Squared, added:
“This partnership underscores how private investment, technology innovation, and corporate energy demand can come together to deliver scalable climate solutions.”
