The wind turbine manufacturer ENERCON, Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH, a subsidiary of Salzgitter AG, and SMB Schönebecker Maschinenbau GmbH from the TMGROUP have joined forces to produce a steel tower with reduced CO2 emissions.
This project represents a significant step towards sustainable production processes for wind turbines. The first components from this cooperation will be installed in an E-138 EP3 wind turbine in the Diepholzer Bruch wind farm project (Lower Saxony) at the beginning of 2025. This will make it one of the first onshore wind turbines in Europe and the first in Germany to use a tower made of emission-reduced steel, which is often referred to as “green steel”.
“Working with strong partners in the steel industry is a significant step forward in our mission to systematically and measurably integrate sustainability into our products and processes,” says Stefan Frey, ENERCON Global Procurement Director for Towers. "By pooling our expertise, we are able to reduce the carbon footprint of this steel tower by more than 70%. With this cooperation, we are creating an important prerequisite for being able to offer our customers an even more sustainable tower option in the future - naturally while maintaining our high quality standards and using state-of-the-art tower technologies."
Advantages of the hybrid tower concept
Wind turbines with a hybrid tower concept are made entirely of steel. They consist of pre-folded steel plates in the lower section and conical steel sections in the upper section. This design not only facilitates transportation and assembly, but is also particularly advantageous for increasing tower heights with larger tower base diameters. In addition, steel can be completely recycled.
Steel production is an energy-intensive process. In order to minimize greenhouse gas emissions in the production of heavy plate, Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH uses physically CO2-reduced slabs in this project. These come from Peiner Träger GmbH, another sister company of Salzgitter AG, and a European partner company. The slabs are produced 100 % from steel scrap in the electric arc furnace (EAF). The company also relies on an electricity mix with a high proportion of renewable energies.
SALCOS® program as a milestone
"We are working closely with strong partners from industry and research on our way to making steel production as climate-neutral as possible. We are therefore delighted to be producing the first low-emission tower for a wind turbine in Germany together with ENERCON and other companies in the steel industry," explains Thorsten Gintaut, Managing Director Sales at Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH. "The Salzgitter Group is a leader in the transformation towards low-CO2 production processes and steel products. With the SALCOS® - Salzgitter Low CO2 Steelmaking - program, we are working on replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen produced from renewable energies. The aim is to avoid the generation of CO2 in steel production right from the start and thus reduce our overall CO2 emissions by an estimated 95 % by the end of 2033."
ENERCON's sustainability strategy
In its recently published sustainability strategy, ENERCON once again confirms its commitment to environmental and climate protection. “As a company, we have set ourselves the goal of reducing the intensity of indirect emissions by 40 % by 2030,” emphasizes ENERCON Chief Operation Officer Heiko Juritz. "Emission-reduced steel makes a significant contribution to further improving the environmental footprint of wind energy converters. Together with our partners, we are delighted to be a pioneer in the onshore market in Germany and Europe."
