Green steel from Salzgitter for sustainable wind turbine towers

The steel company Salzgitter is working with wind turbine manufacturer Enercon and steel constructor TMGROUP on the first lower-emissions steel tower for onshore wind turbines in Germany. The three partners promise more than 70 percent reduction in CO2e emissions for every steel tower.

Wind turbine manufacturer Enercon, subsidiary of Salzgitter AG Ilsenburger Grobblech and TM Group company SMB Schönebecker Maschinenbau are cooperating to produce a lower-emissions steel tower, marking a further important step towards achieving more sustainability in the production processes of wind turbines. The steel tower components born from the cooperation will be put to use early in 2025 on an E-138 EP3 wind turbine as part of the Diepholzer Bruch wind farm project in Lower Saxony, Germany. This will make it one of the first onshore wind turbines in Europe – and the first in Germany – to feature a tower made from lower-emissions steel, often referred to as “green” steel.
“Working together with such strong partners from the steel industry means we are making significant progress in our mission to integrate sustainability systematically and measurably in our products and processes”, says Stefan Frey, Enercon Global Procurement Director for Towers. “By pooling our expertise, we can reduce the CO2e footprint of this steel tower by more than 70 percent. This cooperation provides us with an important basis from which we can offer our customers an even more sustainable tower option in future, while of course maintaining our high quality standards and using state-of-the-art tower technology.”

Wind turbines with a hybrid tower concept

Wind turbines with a hybrid tower concept are made completely of steel. The bottom is composed of pre-edged steel plates, and the top of conical steel sections. This type of tower offers advantages both for installation and transport, particularly in view of increasing tower heights with even larger tower base diameters. In addition to this, steel is entirely recyclable. Steel production is an energy-intensive process. In order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the production of heavy plates, Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH is using physically CO2-reduced slabs from its sister company Peiner Träger GmbH and another European partner company for this project. They are produced entirely from scrap in an electric arc furnace (EAF). Furthermore, the company is also focussed on using an energy mix with a significant share of renewable energies.
“We are working closely with strong research and industry partners to achieve a steel production that is as climate-neutral as possible. We are therefore very pleased to be producing the first lower-emissions tower for a wind turbine in Germany together with Enercon and other companies from the steel industry”, says Thorsten Gintaut, Managing Director of Sales at Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH.

Important contribution to reducing the environmental impact of wind turbines

According to the company, the Salzgitter Group is a leader in the transformation towards low-CO2 production processes and steel products. With ther Salcos – Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking – programme, Salzgitter is working on replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen produced from renewable energies. “The aim is to avoid the generation of CO2 in the steel production process from the outset and thus enable us to reduce our overall CO2 emissions by an estimated 95 percent by the end of 2033”, says Gintaut.
In its recently published sustainability strategy, Enercon reinforced its commitment to environmental and climate protection. “As a company we have set ourselves a target of reducing the intensity of indirect emissions by 40 percent by 2030”, says Enercon COO Heiko Juritz. “Lower-emissions steel will make an important contribution to reducing the environmental impact of wind turbines further. We are happy to be a trailblazer in the onshore market in Germany and Europe together with our partners.”
Source: Salzgitter AG