Wire · operational-macro
Study finds carbon capture and storage could help curb emissions from AI-driven data center boom
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Fusion42 · 14 July 2026 · Fusion42 review
A Rice University study projects US data centre power capacity will quadruple from 40GW to 169GW by 2030, driving carbon emissions from 90 to 404 million metric tonnes annually; researchers find that natural gas plants equipped with carbon capture and storage could mitigate 74% of projected emissions by 2030 using existing saline aquifer storage.
This Wire brief sits within Fusion42's coverage of AI Infrastructure, Carbon Tech and Clean Energy.
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If you're building data centre infrastructure or energy supply to them, your site selection and power strategy just got a hard constraint: you need access to saline aquifer storage or pipeline offtake capacity to CCS hubs, or your emissions liability will shut you down before 2030. Texas alone needs 25GW by 2030—but only if the CO2 goes underground.
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1 source · 13 Jul 2026
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