ESSEN (dpa-AFX) - The German steel industry has emphasized the importance of the sector for the energy industry. For example, the steel industry is an "enormous anchor of demand" for the hydrogen ramp-up, said Kerstin Maria Rippel, Managing Director of the German Steel Federation, at the E-world energy trade fair in Essen on Tuesday. For the planned hydrogen-based direct reduction plants, the steel industry will need between 600,000 and 850,000 tons of green hydrogen in 2030. In the coming years, such plants will replace traditional blast furnaces, which emit a lot of carbon dioxide.

Steel is also needed for energy transition technologies, said Rippel. Photovoltaic systems, for example, require 35 to 45 tons of steel per megawatt of generation capacity. For wind turbines at sea, 120 to 180 tons of steel are needed for one megawatt.

A green steel industry could also reduce the energy sector's CO2 footprint. Rippel spoke of a kind of circular system: "The steel industry supplies the green material for the plants and the infrastructure, which in turn produce green electricity and green hydrogen and transport it to us, which we need again for the green material."

However, the steel industry also needs its colleagues in the energy industry, says Rippel. The steel industry needs large quantities of electricity. It already consumes around 12 terawatt hours a year. By 2030, 24 terawatt hours are expected. If you add the electricity required for the production of green hydrogen, an additional 48 terawatt hours of electricity would be needed in 2030. For comparison: according to the Federal Network Agency, around 457 terawatt hours of electricity were consumed in Germany in 2023. "One thing is clear: a green, reliable and affordable energy supply is the key prerequisite for our transformation," emphasized Rippel./tob/DP/jha