Vestas has established a partnership with ArcelorMittal to launch a low-emission steel offering that reduces lifetime carbon dioxide emissions from the production of wind turbine towers.
The low-emission steel is produced using 100% steel scrab which is melted in an electric arc furnace powered by 100% wind energy at the ArcelorMittal steel mill, Industeel Charleroi, in Belgium. The steel slabs are then transformed into heavy plates used for the manufacture of wind turbine towers, at ArcelorMittal’s heavy plate mill in Gijon, Spain. These heavy plates made with low-emission steel are initially suitable for the entire onshore wind turbine towers and the top section of offshore wind turbine towers. The low-emission heavy plate steel has an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD), certified by an independent party. By utilising low-emission steel in the top two sections of an offshore tower, this emission reduction would translate to approximately 25% reduction of emission compared to a tower made from steel made via conventional steelmaking route. For an entire onshore tower, the CO2 reduction is at least 52%. Even though the low emission steel is not yet a standard offering from Vestas, the first project utilising low-emission steel will be the Baltic Power Offshore Wind Project off the coast of Poland which will start construction in 2025. The top section of 52 towers out of the 76 will be made with low-emission steel.
