SYDNEY - Australia can benefit from its abundance of cheap wind and solar power generation to arrest decades of decline in its steel-making industry.
The so-called green steel would also cut the need for polluting metallurgical coal, a key ingredient in making steel based on current methods. The technology to make"green hydrogen" is still in its infancy and efforts to make it a commercial reality are furthest advanced in Europe, where policymakers are quickly tightening the screws on industry to scale back pollution. The industrial gas maker Air Liquide SA, steelmaker ThyssenKrupp AG and oil major Royal Dutch Shell Plc have some of the highest profile demonstration projects.
Efforts to resuscitate the sector have focused on finding cheaper sources of power. Sanjeev Gupta's GFG Alliance in 2017 acquired the Whyalla steelworks in South Australia, after owner Arrium went into administration, and laid out plans to use solar electricity, hydro power and storage batteries to overcome soaring energy costs.