An agreement between RWE Supply & Trading and Salzgitter Group’s has been formed and this agreement states that RWE will support Salzgitter with their steelmaking aims. The company will supply 64GWh of green electricity every year and this agreement will be effective for seven years, starting in 2027.

To make this possible, the German steel company will source electricity from the 180MW Boitzenburger Land solar park in Germany, specifically Brandenburg and the company is able to do this due to a long-term Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). Sourcing this electricity will allow the company to power its electric arc furnaces and green hydrogen-produced steel.

Due to being part of the SALCOS® (Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking) transformation programme, from 2026 Salzgitter Flachstahl will be able to start slowly converting its steel production to electricity and hydrogen-based processes.

Previously, in June 2024, Salzgitter AG began a tender for at least 100,000 tonnes of low-carbon hydrogen, which will be intended to complement the company’s green steelmaking plans. This tender was started in order to support SALCOS® and furthermore, it has been stated that the quantities of hydrogen that can be used in the first expansion stage, will be up to 150,000 tonnes on an annual basis.

On top of this, Salzgitter was also able to create a hydrogen supply deal with Uniper and this occurred in April of 2024. This agreement included the term that a maximum of 20,000 tonnes of green hydrogen per year will be provided to the SALCOS programme and this will take place from 2028 onwards.

Head of Energy Procurement at Salzgitter Flachstahl, Marco Hauer, commented, “Large quantities of greenhouse gases are currently still being released during conventional steel production. That is why we are driving forward the switch to a virtually CO2-free steel production process on a large scale. By 2025, half of our electricity requirements will come from non-fossil sources, and by 2030 we want to be using 100% green electricity.”