The UK will need more than 10 million mt of steel over the remainder of the decade to achieve its energy self-sufficiency plans, Tata Steel UK said in a statement Dec. 29.
The company, the UK’s largest steel producer, said new research it has carried out shows that more than 5 million mt of steel will be needed to build thousands of wind turbines at sea by 2030, while planned solar and nuclear power plants in the country are likely to require 3.5 million mt of steel over the coming years.
Building the infrastructure for hydrogen production and distribution, as well as large-scale carbon capture (CCS) projects would require another 1.5 million mt of steel, it said. Ferrous metal will also be needed to unlock new oil and gas sources in the North Sea, it added.
“The UK already has the largest offshore wind sector in the world, but with a target to increase capacity by 400% this decade we are only just getting started,” trade association UK Steel’s director general, Gareth Stace, said in a statement.
He added that similar opportunities exist in the domestic expansion of nuclear and solar capacity, and in the rollout of CCS and hydrogen networks.
Earlier this year, the UK government published its Energy Security Strategy in response to soaring energy prices.
“Achieving a secure energy supply will need an energy revolution [in the UK] requiring millions of tonnes of steel to build new energy generation projects,” Tata Steel UK Chairman Henrik Adam said, underlining the importance of investment in the country’s steel industry.
— Ekaterina Bouckley
