ArcelorMittal Belgium A double

Photo courtesy ArcelorMittal Belgium.

With its three new units, ArcelorMittal now has sixteen wind turbines in operation on the site of its steel factory in North Sea Port.

A double frst in wind energy

ArcelorMittal Belgium

Wind mills keep popping up in ever larger numbers within North Sea Port, as companies increasingly want to rely on the cheap green energy that wind can provide. ArcelorMittal recently installed three new turbines on the site of its steel mill, reaching a new milestone in renewable energy.

The three additional turbines that wind farm developer Storm commissioned on the grounds of ArcelorMittal Belgium in the Ghent port area mark a double frst: they form the frst subsidy-free wind farm in Belgium and with their tip height of 230m, rotor diameter of 162m and a capacity of 6MW per turbine they are the largest in the country. It’s not just about setting new records in terms of dimensions, says Storm’s managing director Jan Caerts. “The bigger the wind turbine, the more electricity it generates, and the cheaper that electricity becomes. Furthermore, a rapid transition to cheap locally produced renewable energy is essential for anchoring heavy industry in our country and thus for our economic prosperity.”

Reduced footprint

ArcelorMittal Belgium will buy the electricity produced by the new wind farm at a price that is fxed for twenty years, thus ensuring itself of a guaranteed supply of cheap and renewable energy and at the same time allowing Storm to realise the wind farm without having to rely on the system of green certifcates. The wind turbines – which themselves are primarily made of steel – will supply more than 45,000MWh of electricity annually to the steel plant, the equivalent annual electricity consumption of 13,000 families. The wind farm also avoids emitting 11,225t of CO2 every year, helping ArcelorMittal Belgium to reduce its carbon footprint even further.

Growing renewable share

“This is another milestone in renewable energy for ArcelorMittal Belgium”, declares CEO Manfred Van Vlierberghe. The number of wind turbines on the Ghent site now totals sixteen units, representing 64MW of installed capacity. Add to that the more than 100,000m² of solar panels with a combined peak capacity of 10 MW and renewable energy already accounts for 11% of electricity consumption of the steel factory. “We are constantly looking into possibilities to further expand these numbers. It is still early days and no decisions have been made yet, but a few new developments are on the table”, Mr Van Vlierberghe adds.