Salzgitter is to supply steel for 36 of the 72 wind turbine towers to be used at the 1GW Danish offshore wind farm Thor.
The contract is with Siemens Gamesa and will involve delivery of around 25,000 tonnes of heavy plates for the construction of Siemens Gamesa’s GreenerTowers, which achieve CO2 equivalent emissions savings of less than 700 kg per tonne of steel.
The heavy plates for the wind towers are to be delivered to the wind tower manufacturers Windar in Spain and Welcon in Denmark from March to October 2025.
The new GreenTower has been part of Siemens Gamesa’s product portfolio since 2024 and can be used as an option for all future onshore and offshore wind turbines.
The first use of the Siemens Gamesa GreenerTower is the 1GW Thor offshore wind farm in the Danish North Sea on the west coast of Jutland, which is planned to be completed by the end of 2027.
Thor will have a total of 72 wind turbine towers.
The heavy plate for the 36 GreenerTowers will be supplied by Salzgitter subsidiary Ilsenburger Grobblech (ILG) and Mannesmann Grobblech (MGB).
“We are delighted that ILG and MGB are the first certified suppliers to make a significant contribution to reducing the global CO2eq footprint by supplying low-emission heavy plate.
“To this end, we have invested in new equipment to be able to supply such wind projects with 18 – 24 meter long plates.
“This includes, for example, the investment in the transport line for finishing with an overhead crane and a mobile roller table extension,” said Oliver Laubner, Sales Manager at Ilsenburger Grobblech.
“It is a pleasure to see the first GreenerTowers taking physical shape in the real world – not only as drawings.
“The energy transition demands end-to-end value chains working together to eliminate CO2eq emissions.
“GreenerTowers exemplifies this collaboration.
“If all towers installed by the company in one year were replaced with GreenerTowers, it would be equivalent to removing over 466,000 cars from European roads for a year.
“Innovations like this are crucial to achieving our sustainability goals” added Maximilian Schnippering, Head of Sustainability at Siemens Gamesa.
Around 30,000 tonnes of primary material are required to produce the heavy plates.
Some of these slabs are produced with low CO2eq emissions at Peiner Trager using scrap-based electrical steel and renewable energy.
The remaining slabs are supplied by trading company Salzgitter Mannesmann International from European sources with similar low CO2eq emissions.