Steel group Salzgitter AG and energy company ENGIE conclude Power Purchase Agreement

Salzgitter/Cologne - Salzgitter and ENGIE have concluded a Power Purchase Agreement. The agreement covers the supply of 250 GWh of electricity per year. The contract starts in 2023 and runs until the end of 2025.

The electricity comes from ten onshore wind farms throughout Germany. Some of these are wind farms that no longer receive support under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EGG). These wind farms will thus remain available for the energy turnaround after the expiry of the EEG subsidy. Another part of the electricity comes from new plants connected to the grid at the end of 2021.

"The PPA with ENGIE is a very important building block for our transformation towards green steel and puts us in a position to melt and process steel in the electric arc furnace with verifiably green electricity as early as next year. With the mix of this PPA, which consists of wind farms located in very different regions with very different start-up dates and thus different technology standards of the respective wind turbines, we are aiming for the highest possible availability of wind onshore electricity", emphasises Ralph Schaper, Head of Energy Management at Salzgitter Flachstahl GmbH.

“We are very pleased to support the Salzgitter Group on the path towards decarbonisation and consider it a pioneering step in the steel industry. Strong signals and confidence in renewables are particularly important right now. The PPA makes it possible for urgently needed wind turbines to remain connected to the grid and for new ones to be built," says Sarah Drevermann, Senior Originator at ENGIE Energy Management Solutions.

ENGIE is one of the leading providers of PPAs worldwide and is one of the top three portfolio owners of post-EEG plants with a volume of more than two terawatt hours.