Groups from North Dakota, Iowa to co-develop CO2 storage

CENTER, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota-based power cooperative and an Iowa company announced an agreement Thursday to co-develop carbon dioxide storage facilities.

Minnkota Power Cooperative, which operates out of Grand Forks, and Ames, Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions said the CO2 storage facilities would be located in western North Dakota, near the town of Center.

Minnkota and Summit said they have previously been working independently on the development of their respective carbon capture and storage projects.

The co-op’s Project Tundra aims to install carbon capture technologies at the Milton R. Young Station, a coal-fired power plant in Center. The Summit project involves capturing the emissions of several ethanol plants across Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and the Dakotas and pumping it thousands of feet underground in western North Dakota for permanent storage.

The agreement provides Summit access to Minnkota’s 100-million-ton capacity CO2 storage site in Oliver County. It also creates the framework to jointly develop additional CO2 storage resources nearby, which are estimated to have aggregate CO2 storage exceeding 200 million tons.

Minnkota and Summit said the partnership “will more quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively advance their projects to commercial operations.”