Without electricity there is no steel, without steel there are no wind turbines. The steel industry has pointed out the mutual dependencies between the electricity industry and the steel industry.
The German steel industry has emphasized the importance of the sector for the energy industry. For example, the steel industry is an “enormous anchor of demand” when it comes to the hydrogen ramp-up, said the managing director of the Steel Association, Kerstin Maria Rippel, at the E-world energy trade fair in Essen. For the planned hydrogen-based direct reduction plants, the steel industry will need between 600,000 and 850,000 tons of green hydrogen in 2030. In the coming years, such systems are expected to replace classic blast furnaces, which emit a lot of carbon dioxide.
Steel is also necessary for energy transition technologies, said Rippel. For photovoltaic systems, 35 to 45 tons of steel are needed per megawatt of generation capacity. For wind turbines at sea, 120 to 180 tons of steel are required for one megawatt.
A green steel economy could also reduce the carbon footprint of the energy sector. Rippel spoke of a kind of circular system: “The steel industry supplies the green material for the plants and infrastructure, which in turn produce green electricity and green hydrogen and transport it to us, which we need again for the green material.”
But the steel industry also needs colleagues from the energy industry, said Rippel. The steel industry needs large amounts of electricity. It is already around 12 terawatt hours annually. By 2030 we expect 24 terawatt hours. If you add the electricity required to produce green hydrogen, you would need an additional 48 terawatt hours of electricity in 2030. For comparison: According to the Federal Network Agency, around 457 terawatt hours of electricity were consumed in Germany in 2023. “One thing is clear: a green, reliable, affordable energy supply is the central prerequisite for our transformation,” emphasized Rippel.
Source: Stern
