Steelmaker Salzgitter signs wind PPA with Engie in Germany

December 7 (Renewables Now) - The German unit of French energy company Engie (EPA:ENGI) will supply 250 GWh of green electricity annually to steel producer Salzgitter AG (ETR:SZG) from onshore wind parks across Germany.

The clean power will be delivered under a power purchase agreement (PPA), spanning three years from 2023 until the end of 2025, Engie Deutschland and Salzgitter said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

The electricity comes from ten wind farms that no longer receive funding under the EGG scheme as well as new plants that were put into operation at the end of 2021. In this way, the PPA ensures that urgently needed turbines will remain in operation after the end of the EEG remuneration and new wind parks will be built.

Commenting on the agreement, Ralph Schaper, Head of Energy Management at Salzgitter Flachstahl, said that the PPA with Engie is a very important component of Salzgitter's transformation towards green steel production and stressed that it will enable the group to melt and process steel, using green electricity as early as next year.

The offtake deal comes only a few weeks after Salzgitter signed a 15-year PPA with EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG (ETR:EBK) to procure 50 MW of electricity from the 900-MW He Dreiht wind farm that will be built in the North Sea.