From pv magazine India
Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal, a leading steel and mining company, plans to invest in solar energy in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Lakshmi Niwas Mittal, group chairman of ArcelorMittal, recently met Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and expressed his willingness to set up a 4.5 GW solar park at an investment of INR 19,000 crore ($2,586 million) in Rajasthan. The plant would be set up by ArcelorMittal's HPCL-Mittal Energy Ltd. unit.
Gehlot also invited ArcelorMittal to invest in the state’s mining sector.
Popular content
Mittal also met with Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and noted plans to invest $6809 million in Gujarat’s solar energy, wind energy, and hydrogen gas production sectors. With this, the company joins the trend of steelmakers moving into green hydrogen and increasing its footprint in renewable power generation.
JSW Future Energy Ltd., a unit of power producer JSW Energy Ltd., recently joined hands with Australia-based Fortescue Future Industries (FFI) to explore green hydrogen development. Under their agreement, FFI and JSW Energy will collaborate and conduct scoping work on potential projects in green hydrogen production. They will also explore opportunities to use green hydrogen for steelmaking, hydrogen mobility, ammonia, and other mutually agreed industrial applications in India.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
The report does not cite any specific hydrogen DRI projects by Arcelor-Mittal. But without these, there is no clear industrial logic why the company should get into the large-scale green hydrogen business. India is the world leader in fossil DRI already (26mt/yr), and retrofittng of existing plants must be a possibility.