North Dakota Carbon Capture Project in Limbo After Canada Group’s Exit

A Canada-based energy group reportedly has withdrawn from a $2 billion carbon capture project in North Dakota. Project Tundra, which aimed to capture carbon dioxide from flue gas from two coal-fired units at the 705-MW Milton R. Young Station near Center, North Dakota, is now in limbo just two months from the U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE).

TC Energy Corp., headquartered in Calgary, Alberta, reportedly said it will shift its focus to projects better aligned with the company’s commercial interests. TC Energy is an energy infrastructure group that develops pipelines and is focused on natural gas and power. The exit comes as Minnkota Power Cooperative, the project lead, said it would not reach a final investment decision on Tundra by the end of the year, according to Politico’s E&E News service.

Project Tundra earlier this year received a $4.1 million award from the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. Minnkota officials had said the initiative was an important part of the state’s climate change strategy. Reports said Minnkota has acknowledged the company will be challenged to raise funds to continue to the project. Officials also have said Tundra’s increasing costs, and an uncertain regulatory environment, may not make it viable moving forward.

Minnkota is among the groups that has opposed new emissions rules from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Those regulations could be undone by the incoming Trump administration, although the timing of such a move—and the legal challenges sure to follow—created uncertainty for the power generation industry.

Project Tundra has been in development for almost a decade. It has been touted as one of the more promising carbon capture projects that would support the continued operation of coal-fired power plants.

that Minnkota planned to install and operate a carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration facility to treat all the flue gas from Unit 2 at the Young power station, along with part of the flue gas from Unit 1 at the site. The CCS project would feature technology using Mitsubishi Heavy Industries’ KS-21 solvent. More information about Project Tundra is .

As POWER previously reported, the project began with concept discussions in 2015, and moved through early feasibility and research stages in 2016. It saw the start of CarbonSAFE CO₂ storage feasibility work in 2017, and the enhancement of the 45Q tax credit in 2018. Engineering, research, and design work continued from 2019 to 2021. Minnkota in 2022 received a permit for what would be the largest CO₂ storage facility in the U.S., along with a $100 million loan from the state of North Dakota.

Project Tundra was the last of three projects picked by the DOE in late 2023 under the agency’s Carbon Capture Demonstration Projects’ program. Others include Calpine’s in Baytown, Texas, and Calpine’s near Yuba City, California.

—Darrell Proctor is a senior editor for POWER.