Leadership and Companies
Google backs Stegra’s Swedish green steel plant with certificates
Google will receive certificates linked to Stegra’s low-emissions steel to support cleaner data center construction.
What happened
Google is partnering with Stegra on a large-scale, green hydrogen-based steel plant in Boden, Sweden. The facility will use renewable electricity to produce hydrogen, which replaces coal in making iron. Stegra estimates this can cut production emissions by up to 95% compared with traditional blast-furnace manufacturing. Under the agreement, Google will receive environmental attribute certificates linked to up to 91,000 metric tons of steel produced in Stegra’s first year. The certificates are intended to support demand for sustainably produced materials and help scale early-stage steel technology. The plant is designed to meet the International Energy Agency’s definition of near-zero-emissions steel production.
Why it matters
The arrangement gives Google a way to support lower-carbon steel while reducing embodied carbon in future data center construction. Google estimates that using such materials could cut infrastructure-related embodied emissions by up to 40%.
Source: Google Blog