Google and Broadwing Energy launch a first-of-a-kind CCS power deal

On October 23, 2025, Google announced the first major PPA for electricity produced from natural gas with CCS. The power will come from the Broadwing Energy plant developed by Low Carbon Infrastructure at the Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) facility in Decatur, IL.  

Google, which has set ambitious 24/7 carbon-free electricity goals, is a global leader in clean power procurement, including wind, solar, battery storage, geothermal, and nuclear. This transaction marks a significant step toward those goals and recognizes the urgency of mitigating CO2 emissions from natural gas-fired power.

In this landmark deal, Google will purchase most of the electricity produced by the 400-megawatt plant to power its data centers connected to the same regional grid. Since the plant’s gas-fired turbine is equipped with CCS, it will emit less than 10% as much CO2 as conventional natural gas-fired power.  

Google will pay for the electricity and the CCS, claiming the emissions reduction benefit through an environmental attribute certificate (EAC) designed in collaboration with The NorthBridge Group. This instrument functions similarly to a renewable energy certificate (REC) while carrying non-zero emissions impacts.

Why is Google buying electricity produced from natural gas with CCS?

Since 2010, Google has procured over 22 GW of renewable power through 170 agreements, including wind and solar, often paired with batteries. In 2017, the company backed its corporate pledge of 100% renewable power procurements with unprecedented transparency of its electricity footprint (including RECs and grid balancing), and in 2018 committed to achieving 24/7 zero-emission power. More recently, Google has made landmark deals around geothermal and nuclear power.

However, Google’s newest data centers are electricity consumers of unprecedented size and demand profile. Google has set an ambitious climate goal to run all of its operations on clean energy, matched hourly and geographically to its use, by 2030. This procurement is consistent with that commitment and demonstrates Google’s recognition of the need to provide additional support to energy infrastructure and markets beyond its historical purchases of renewable energy.

Natural gas-fired generation with CCS is a generation category that is differentiated by the type of power that it delivers. Power grids are increasingly under pressure from rapid growth, extreme weather, and aging infrastructure. Natural gas-fired generation, often called “firm” power, alleviates some of these pressures and is growing in tandem with new loads.  Often called “clean firm” power, natural gas power with CCS can generate electricity throughout the year and across all hours of the day, contributing to increased reliability with a 90% reduction in climate impact. Committing to CCS is a direct way to reduce the otherwise unavoidable emissions that would result from unabated natural gas-fired generation. Google will claim this benefit under the GHG Protocol Scope 2 inventory.

Key features of the Broadwing CCS power project

The Broadwing Energy Center, located in Decatur, IL, is expected to begin delivering decarbonized heat and power in 2029. It will be one of the first natural gas-fired electricity generators with CCS in the world, following projects such as Net Zero Teesside in the UK (expected online in 2028) and Calpine’s Baytown Carbon Capture project in Texas.

Broadwing Energy Center will use Mitsubishi Heavy Industry’s carbon capture technology, which has been extensively developed and tested over the past two decades. Mitsubishi will guarantee the performance of the capture system, minimizing technology risk. 

The plant is co-located with the ADM biorefinery, which sits atop one of the best characterized geologic CO2 disposal sites in the US. Since 2011, ADM has injected over four million tons of CO2 captured from its ethanol production facility, demonstrating the reliability of the existing CO2 injection and storage infrastructure.

As a combined heat and power plant, the Broadwing Energy Center will use heat from the electricity generator’s exhaust to provide steam to ADM’s industrial operations. The sustained demand for steam ensures that the plant will run nearly continuously, enabling around-the-clock production of decarbonized power to meet Google’s 24/7 clean energy goals and contribute to grid reliability.  

Steam will also power the carbon capture system. The Broadwing Energy Center is designed from the ground up to integrate carbon capture with steam production. That integration enables the capture process to be more energy- and cost-efficient than retrofitting carbon capture on an existing plant that was designed to operate unabated.

What is important about this CCS power deal?

This deal is groundbreaking in several ways. It’s the first evidence of real and large-scale demand for CCS. That demand comes from a company with a proven commitment to its climate goals and to investing its resources into clean energy. It also represents a credible assessment that CCS is necessary to support clean firm electricity and that the technology is mature enough to deliver tangible emissions reductions.

The agreement sets a precedent for companies to pay a green premium for natural gas power with CCS. It also sets a precedent for the buyer to accept the substantially reduced, but still non-zero emissions from the CCS-equipped power plant into their GHG Protocol Scope 2 inventory. The transfer is accomplished through the use of a new type of environmental attribute certificate, designed by NorthBridge Group, which is similar enough to a REC that the transaction can be accomplished within existing REC frameworks.

Google’s long-term PPA will pave the way for similar projects and ultimately support the development of a robust carbon capture sector. It will also demonstrate the integrated system in the US, which helps establish CCS as a best available control technology.

Most importantly, this project will demystify CCS as a greenhouse gas control technology. This should help derisk future projects for investors and show communities, regulators, and environmental actors how to move away from “capture-ready” projects towards “capture-committed” clean, firm generation.   

Looking ahead: Scaling CCS deployment

The Google-Broadwing deal is an important step forward that unlocks the potential for CCS to decarbonize electricity generation. The low-risk technology choice, thoughtful site selection, intentional community engagement, and careful design of the EAC all highlight the parties’ commitment to quality project execution.

This transaction demonstrates that natural gas power with CCS is a feasible near-term option for companies with serious climate ambition seeking to support electricity resources that improve grid quality.   

Learn more about how CCS fits into your electricity decarbonization strategy by downloading our Introduction to natural gas power with CCS white paper or our investigation into CCS retrofit opportunities for the US NG Power Fleet. 

How Carbon Direct supports the deployment of CCS

Natural gas-fired generation combined with CCS offers an additional solution for meeting the surging electricity load growth, while significantly reducing emissions. Carbon Direct helps stakeholders navigate the complexities of CCS deployment through deep, science-backed expertise and strategic advisory services. Our experienced team provides comprehensive support throughout CCS project development and offtake transactions, including project diligence, technology selection, lifecycle emissions analysis, infrastructure assessment, regulatory compliance, and risk management.

Learn more about how Carbon Direct supports CCS and industrial decarbonization.