PremiumThe project will be owned and funded by ArcelorMittal. Greenko will design, construct, and operate the renewable energy facilities in Andhra Pradesh, Southern India. Project commissioning is expected by mid-2024
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NEW DELHI : ArcelorMittal on Tuesday announced a renewable energy partnership with Greenko Group as part of its strategy to reduce carbon footprint by going green.
Under the alliance, ArcelorMittal will invest $600 million to own and fund a 975 megawatt (MW) renewable energy project in Andhra Pradesh.
The project will leverage Hydro Pumped Storage Plant (PSP) to provide continuous green energy to ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India. The idea is to use cheap green power during off-peak hours to raise water to a height and then release it into a lower reservoir to generate power when there is more demand.
With the European Union coming up with the world’s first carbon tax, Indian steel and aluminium makers such as ArcelorMittal, JSW Group, Vedanta Ltd, and state-run Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) are working to trim their carbon footprint as reported by Mint on 9 December. The tax aims to ensure that non-EU firms exporting to EU pay the same price for their carbon footprint in Europe as EU firms.
“ArcelorMittal’s joint venture company in India, ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India (AM/NS India), will enter into a 25 year off-take agreement with ArcelorMittal to purchase 250 MW of renewable electricity annually from the project. This will result in over 20% of the electricity requirement at AM/NS India’s Hazira plant coming from renewable sources, reducing carbon emissions by approximately 1.5 million tonnes per year," according to a joint statement.
Backed by GIC Holdings Pte Ltd, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, and Japan’s ORIX Corp., Greenko has India’s largest operational clean energy portfolio of 7.3 GW and is building 30 GWh of storage capacity as part of its plan to set up an energy storage cloud platform of 100 GWh. This comes amid a new ‘Energy Storage System’ policy that has done with the need for securing environment approvals for off-river pumped storage plants and any obligation for free power to the states concerned as reported by Mint earlier.
“The project will be owned and funded by ArcelorMittal. Greenko will design, construct, and operate the renewable energy facilities in Andhra Pradesh, Southern India. Project commissioning is expected by mid-2024," the statement added. “Large amounts of green energy are one of the key foundations for both a net zero economy and a decarbonised steel industry," said Aditya Mittal, chief executive officer, ArcelorMittal.
Greenko has been forming alliances with other companies too. It recently partnered with Adani Group wherein the infrastructure conglomerate plans to utilize Greenko’s 6 GWh of pumped hydro storage capacity to tap round-the-clock power supply of up to 1 GW.
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