As the sustainability of the steel industry is becoming increasingly important to meeting global climate goals, manufacturers are turning to wind power for low-carbon production.
Renewable energy technologies are set to play a key role in ongoing global efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. However, the manufacture of all these forms of renewable energy, whether tidal, solar, geothermal or wind, requires the use of large amounts of steel.
Steel is critical to the transition to a more sustainable economic model. But the steel industry is a traditionally carbon-intensive industry, and the race to reduce the environmental impact of this vital material has begun.
Wind turbine manufacturers and wind farm operators are looking for ways to achieve low-carbon procurement and help create “cleaner” wind power. Low-emission steel offers a way to drastically reduce a project’s carbon footprint, and steelmakers are increasingly incorporating renewable energy into their energy mix.
Because wind power helps reduce fossil fuel use and carbon emissions per ton of steel where appropriate, it has the potential to create a “virtuous circle” where wind-produced steel is further converted to renewables energy transition.
The transition to renewable energy relies on steel, so reducing the carbon footprint of the steel industry is critical.
The future of the steel industry is driven by wind?
Geographical location is extremely important for steel companies using wind power. In South America, Tenaris plans to invest $190 million to build a wind farm in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, located in Adolfo Gonzales Chaves, where strong winds The district will power 24 turbines, generating a total of 509GWh of electricity per year.
The wind farm, which is expected to be operational in the second half of 2023, will provide nearly half of the electricity for Tenaris’ Stelga factory near Buenos Aires, reducing CO2 emissions by 152,000 tons per year, thereby helping Tenaris achieves its plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30% per ton of steel produced by 2030.
All the way to the north, at a distance of nearly 9,000 kilometers from the wind farm, it is the Midwest region of the United States, where the wind blows all the year round. Nucor Steel’s small Sedalia plant is located here, and it will be the first steel plant in the United States to use wind energy.
The company has signed a 10-year contract with Evergy, which means 55 megawatts of energy will be distributed from a brand new $250 million wind farm in Kansas to Nucor’s plant in neighboring Missouri . Strong wind zones such as these present opportunities for any energy-intensive industry looking to meet ambitious sustainable development goals.
In India, ArcelorMittal is planning a “gigascale” wind-solar hybrid project to provide energy 24 hours a day. The $600 million project will continue to provide electricity for steel production, backed by a pumped-storage project that helps mitigate the instability of wind power.
The project, which is planned to be constructed on a site in Andhra Pradesh, will provide power to a plant operated by a joint venture between ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel in India. More than 20% of the electricity at the steel plant in Hazira, Gujarat, will be supplied “around the clock” to cut costs and reduce emissions.
Due to the rising demand for wind power, the steel industry is using this energy to reduce its carbon footprint and meet relevant requirements. As full life cycle thinking increasingly drives the ambition of sustainable development, steel production is bound to move towards a lower carbon, lower price and more efficient development path.