Tata Steel, the owner of Port Talbot steelworks in Wales, is in advanced talks with the government to secure a £500 million funding package to green its operations. It’s £200 million more than what the government offered back in January. For every tonne of steel currently made at Port Talbot, about two tonnes of carbon dioxide enter the atmosphere. The clean alternative is to replace coal-fired ovens with electric arc furnaces (EAFs). In the US, these account for 68 per cent of all steel production, but in the UK, where coal is cheap and electricity relatively expensive, the shift has been slower. Electricity costs for UK steel production are around £94 per MWh, compared to £62 in France and £59 in Germany. Green steel produced at Port Talbot will therefore rely on a neighbouring hydrogen hub built at Milford Haven and a fleet of floating wind turbines in the Celtic Sea. EAFs also require fewer people to operate, meaning that up to 3,000 of Port Talbot’s 4,000-strong workforce could be at risk of job cuts. Community, the steelworkers union, said it has “not agreed any decarbonisation strategy for Port Talbot”.
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