Orsted, the Danish utility and wind power leader, will partner with Germany’s Salzgitter AG in the production and use of low-carbon steel, according to a statement.
Denmark’s largest energy company and one of Europe’s largest steel producers aim to establish closed value chains in their business relationship in a drive to reduce emissions.
“We have a target of making our own operations climate-neutral by 2025, thereby becoming the first major energy company to reach net-zero emissions,” Martin Neubert, Orsted’s Chief Commercial Officer and Deputy Group CEO said in the statement. “We want to achieve the same for our indirect carbon emissions by 2040. As a supplier of green power and as a large offtaker of steel, we consider the partnership with Salzgitter AG a great opportunity to move a step closer to reaching this target.”
The partnership sets up a circular relationship that keeps Orsted’s own business as sustainable as possible, while advancing its abilities to extend cleaner energy to other industries. It is the sort of partnership envisioned by the European Union as it seeks carbon neutrality to battle climate change.
Orsted will supply offshore wind power and the use of renewable hydrogen for the production of low-carbon steel. The steel, in turn, will be used in components for Orsted’s offshore wind farms.
The companies also plan to recycle scrap from decommissioned wind turbines into the steel production process, according to the statement.
“The drive in society for climate neutrality is our incentive for the rapid further development of the company with a focus on circularity, the principle of low-carbon and resource-saving closed value chains,” Gunnar Groebler, Chairman of the Executive Board of Salzgitter AG, said.
