Google plans to develop a 702-megawatt (MW) natural gas fuel-cell project with carbon capture and storage (CCS) to support its first data center in Wyoming, as part of a long-term $17 billion investment in the state.

The project, announced in partnership with American Electric Power (AEP), Tallgrass Energy, Black Hills Energy and Related Digital, is expected to become the largest planned commercial-scale fuel-cell development of its kind.

The fuel cells will be manufactured in the US by Bloom Energy and will convert natural gas into electricity through an electrochemical process. Google said the development will help reduce emissions and water use associated with powering its data infrastructure.

The project will use CCS technology to capture a large majority of its carbon emissions and transport the captured carbon dioxide for permanent geological storage at Tallgrass Energy’s nearby Eastern Wyoming Sequestration Hub.

The hub is being developed to support commercial-scale carbon dioxide storage in the state. Google said the Wyoming project builds on its first US carbon capture and storage agreement, announced last year, and brings its total contracted CCS capacity to nearly 1 gigawatt.

The company is also sourcing electricity from natural gas generators operated by Tallgrass Energy and Black Hills Energy. Separately, it is conducting a technical front-end engineering and design study to assess the possibility of fitting Tallgrass’s combined-cycle gas turbines with CCS technology.

These arrangements form part of Google’s broader effort to secure power for its expanding data center infrastructure while reducing the carbon emissions associated with natural gas generation.

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