Google has entered into an agreement with Stegra to purchase environmental attribute certificates (EACs) linked to steel production at Stegra’s planned green steel plant in Boden, Sweden.
The agreement covers EACs associated with up to 91,000 tons of steel during the first year, with an ambition to add further volumes over the agreement period. The certificates are intended to help scale the global supply of near-zero emissions steel.
The agreement uses a “book and claim” model, allowing the environmental attributes to be separated from the physical steel. Google can therefore address steel-related emissions from its operations, including data center construction, even where direct procurement of the physical steel is not practical.
Stegra said the EAC arrangement can also support cash flow during the early years of operations and the ramp-up of production. The company’s Boden plant will produce steel using green hydrogen and renewable electricity.
Stegra is developing an integrated near-zero emission steel plant in Boden, northern Sweden, based on hydrogen-powered direct reduced iron (DRI) and electric arc furnace (EAF) steelmaking.