Tech giant Google will purchase environmental attribute certificates (EACs) for 91,000 tonnes of green hydrogen-based non-prime steel per year from Sweden’s Stegra.
The EACs will be used to offset Google’s emissions, including those from the construction of its data centres, without receiving physical green steel from Stegra’s flagship plant in Boden.
In the first year of the agreement, Google can purchase EACs equivalent to up to 91,000 tonnes of steel, with “an ambition” to add more volume in the future. The full length of the agreement has not been disclosed.
Google’s European, Middle East, and African head of sustainability, Adam Elman, said certificates were a “vital” mechanism for decarbonising operations.
“Having proven this model with clean electricity…we see green steel EACs as another promising lever to address industrial emissions and scale the clean technologies of the future,” he said.
Covered by a book-and-claim mechanism, Stegra is only offering EACs for non-prime steel, which will make up a larger share of produced volumes in the early years of start-up. Buyers are not obliged to make any green claims.
It comes as the second such deal with a technology giant. Last September, the company announced a similar agreement with Microsoft.
Stegra said the deal would help increase cash flow during the early years of operating the Boden plant, which is due to begin operations by 2027, before scaling to produce five million tonnes of steel annually.
The plant will use self-produced green hydrogen from a 740MW electrolyser plant to reduce iron ore, which will then be converted into steel through a renewable energy-powered electric arc furnace.
Despite lining up physical supply deals with the likes of Mercedes-Benz, Scania, ZF, Ikea, and others, Stegra recently had to raise $1.4bn in rescue financing to complete the plant after prior funds were exhausted.
However, the progress continues despite other major green hydrogen-based steel projects being shelved or delayed amid concerns around the high costs of production
