Stegra has secured the financing needed to complete its flagship green-steel mill in northern Sweden.
The company, formerly H2 Green Steel, said it landed 1.4 billion euros ($1.65 billion) in capital from a group of new and existing investors led by Sweden’s prominent Wallenberg family. The funding will enable Stegra to finish building and commissioning its novel facility in Boden, just south of the Arctic Circle.
The project is a cornerstone of Europe’s broader ambitions to decarbonize its industrial sector and lead the world on lower-emissions technology. Conventional steel mills rely heavily on coal to produce the ubiquitous metal, making them a major source of planet-warming emissions and harmful air pollution.
Stegra’s first-of-a-kind project will instead rely on green hydrogen, which could slash carbon emissions from steelmaking by up to 95%, compared with traditional coal-based furnaces.
The sprawling facility will use giant electrolyzers, powered by the region’s ample hydro and wind energy supplies, to split water molecules and produce the clean fuel. That hydrogen will then turn raw iron ore into lumps of iron, which will be melted and made into steel in electric arc furnaces, also powered by renewables.
