Sustainable power sources - Green energy from wind turbines is supplied to a steel plant.
Thyssenkrupp Steel, based in the German city of Hagen, will receive a sizable portion of its electricity from a newly connected wind park. This makes it the country's first industrial facility to use locally produced wind energy, as stated by Thyssenkrupp Steel on Monday.
The park contains four wind turbines that are projected to meet almost half of the steel mill's annual electricity needs. "This will significantly reduce our network charges and cut the strain on the public power grid by connecting directly," commented André Matusczyk, managing director of Thyssenkrupp Hohenlimburg. The connection line stretches approximately three kilometers in length.
The wind park's operator, SL Naturenergie in Gladbeck, views this approach as the most efficient way to bring together new sources of energy and industries. "We aim to make this standard in Germany, but politics needs to get behind it because the current energy law still has numerous obstacles," explained SL Naturenergie's CEO, Klaus Schulze Langenhorst.
For Thyssenkrupp, this project is an important move towards more environmentally friendly steel production and processing, according to their statements. It could lower the plant's CO2 emissions by around 11%. "I am certain that this groundbreaking project will have a strong impact and will serve as an example for other industrial companies," said the Minister of Economics of North Rhine-Westphalia, Mona Neubaur (Greens).
