Google’s 400‑MW Illinois plant and NextEra’s partnership with ExxonMobil signal a new wave of CCS projects. However, the high cost of capture technology keeps the sector from scaling quickly.

The Broadwing project, the first in a long‑term collaboration between Google and Low Carbon Infrastructure (LCI), aims to demonstrate commercial‑scale CCS deployment in the U.S. Meanwhile, NextEra announced a partnership with ExxonMobil to develop gas‑fired plants with carbon capture for data‑center power.

Adding CCS to U.S. gas plants is estimated to cost between $20 and $30 per megawatt hour, potentially doubling power production costs. Tax credits of $85 per metric ton for projects that start before 2033 and $180 per metric ton for projects that convert carbon into useful products are available, but are insufficient for steel and cement plants. In ethanol facilities, CCS costs range from $15 to $35 per metric ton of carbon, compared with over $100 for natural‑gas‑fired plants. Frontier Infrastructure, owned by Tailwater Capital, provides carbon management services for ethanol producers and operates the Sweetwater Carbon Storage Hub in Wyoming, which has 500 million tons of storage capacity.

Michael Terrell, Head of Advanced Energy at Google, said the company’s long‑term goal is to accelerate the path for CCS technology to become more accessible and affordable globally, helping to increase generating capacity while enabling emission reductions. Peter Findlay, Director of CCUS Economics at Wood Mackenzie, noted that most Big Tech companies have put CCS on the back seat for now due to its high costs and longer timelines compared with other power technologies, and that the cost of adding CCS to U.S. gas plants could double power production costs. Robby Rockey, President and Co‑CEO at Frontier Holdings, explained that the lower costs of installing CCS in ethanol facilities mean the tax credits alone make the projects economically viable, and that using the rail network mitigates community impact and creates an economic solution for ethanol producers to pursue CCS.

With public funding and tax incentives gradually tightening, the CCS sector may shift toward more cost‑effective applications such as ethanol and other industrial processes, while continued investment in transport and storage infrastructure could bring down costs and unlock broader deployment across the U.S. and Europe.