Tackling carbon emissions in a steel-hungry world
While there has been a lot of focus on Australia’s critical minerals strategy and our ambitions of becoming a renewable energy superpower, there are other key materials required in the global drive to decarbonise that bring their own opportunities and challenges.
Steel is a material that will need to be used extensively in lower carbon emission energy technology and infrastructure. In particular, wind generation and hydro require significant amounts of steel in their construction relative to traditional fossil-based power generation.
Steel will be used extensively in lower carbon emission energy technology and infrastructure. iStock
According to global engineering consultancy Hatch, an offshore wind turbine requires 190 tonnes of steel per megawatt of power generation capacity, whereas a gas-fired power facility only requires 35 tonnes per megawatt.
However, the production of steel globally is a significant greenhouse gas emitter as most steel around the world is produced in blast furnaces using iron ore and metallurgical coal. The world is looking at a range of solutions to make steel with a lower carbon emission intensity. Yet high temperature renewable energy sources and new lower carbon emission chemistries for steelmaking are nascent and need further R&D and investment at present, so there’s no silver bullet yet to success.
Moreover, harsher weather projected to be a part of climate change would put more wear and tear on infrastructure, which could mean that it will need to be repaired or replaced more often creating more demand for steel.
According to the recent The brown to green transition — Unleashing the energy transition paper released by BlackRock, one of the world’s leading providers of investment, advisory
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