WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) awarded $350 million for the development of Project Tundra, one of the world’s largest carbon capture projects located near Center, North Dakota. These funds will be distributed through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act’s (IIJA) Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects Program, which supports the development of community-informed integrated carbon capture, transport, and storage projects.
“North Dakota is a global leader in the deployment of carbon capture solutions. Today’s announcement is another major win from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for our state,” said Senator Cramer, member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. “Congratulations to Minnkota. Once Project Tundra is completed, it will be a major feather in the cap for North Dakota’s innovative energy system, keeping miners on the job while putting clean, reliable electricity on the grid.”
Project Tundra is designed to capture up to 4 million metric tons of CO2 annually from the Milton R. Young Station, a lignite coal-based power plant. The CO2 would then be safely stored in geologic formations, roughly a mile underground.
While construction of the project is anticipated to begin in 2024, the facility’s commercial operation is set to begin in 2028. Project Tundra is being developed by Minnkota Power Cooperative, TC Energy, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kiewit.
Senator Cramer has vocally supported DOE’s research and development appropriations for CCUS technologies. In June, he announced Project Tundra entered into the final stage of development and congratulated the effort to scale up carbon capture in North Dakota. In May, the North Dakota delegation wrote a letter of support in Minnkota Power Cooperative’s Project Tundra Community Benefits Plan.
During a Senate EPW meeting in 2021, Senator Cramer promoted carbon capture technologies as a unifying area of climate policy. He also participated in a tour of the Project Tundra’s test well in 2020, where he emphasized the importance of producing reliable energy in America.