Wind turbine manufacturer ENERCON, Salzgitter AG’s Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH, and TM Group’s SMB Schonebecker Maschinenbau GmbH have teamed up to produce a lower-emissions steel tower, advancing sustainability in wind turbine production, Salzgitter announced.
The first components from this collaboration will be installed in early 2025 on an E-138 EP3 wind turbine at the Diepholzer Bruch wind farm in Lower Saxony, Germany. This will make it one of Europe’s first onshore wind turbines, and Germany’s first, to feature a tower built with green steel.
Stefan Frey, ENERCON’s Global Procurement Director for Towers, stated that the partnership will cut the CO2 footprint of the steel tower by over 70pct.
Wind turbines with hybrid steel towers use pre-edged steel plates at the base and conical steel sections at the top, offering benefits in transport and installation, especially as tower heights and base diameters increase. Additionally, steel is fully recyclable. Steel production is energy-intensive, but for this project, Ilsenburger Grobblech GmbH is using CO2-reduced slabs from Peiner Trager GmbH and another European partner. These slabs are produced entirely from scrap in an electric arc furnace (EAF), alongside an energy mix with a significant share of renewables, further lowering emissions.
