Automotive giant BMW Group is the first customer for Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA)’s new CelestiAL aluminium, which is produced using solar power.
Under the agreement, which was announced on Tuesday, EGA will supply 3,000 tonnes of CelestiAL aluminium to BMW Group per year.
Using EGA’s solar aluminium will reduce BMW Group’s emissions by 222,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, it added in a statement.
“We are delighted that the BMW Group is the first customer for EGA’s low carbon CelestiAL. Aluminium is lightweight, strong and infinitely recyclable, and that is why it has an important role to play in developing a more sustainable society and making modern life possible,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of EGA.
“But it also matters how sustainably aluminium is made. Solar aluminium is a step forward, using a natural and abundant source of energy in our desert environment to make a metal that is vital to our planet’s future,” he added.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of EGA
EGA has supplied metal to BMW Group since 2013 for use in the German carmaker’s engines and other parts. Through the current annual supply contract, worth a three-digit million-euro sum, CelestiAL metal will cover almost half the annual requirements of Plant Landshut, the BMW Group’s only production facility for light metal casting in Europe.
“In EGA, we have found a strong partner who values sustainable development just as much as we do. It is a special honour for us to be the first customer to receive aluminium produced using solar electricity.
“Aluminium plays an important role in e-mobility and using sustainably produced aluminium is tremendously important to our company,” said Andreas Wendt, BMW board member for Purchasing and Supplier Network.
Producing aluminium is energy-intensive, and generating electricity accounts for some 60 percent of the global aluminium industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. The use of solar power significantly reduces the emissions associated with aluminium smelting.
Using EGA’s solar aluminium will reduce BMW Group’s emissions by 222,000 tonnes of CO2 per year
EGA began production of CelestiAL earlier this month, the first time solar power has been used to produce aluminium commercially worldwide. EGA’s CelestiAL aluminium is made using electricity generated at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, located in the desert outside Dubai and operated by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA).
DEWA supplies EGA’s smelter with 560,000 megawatt-hours of solar power yearly, sufficient to make 40,000 tonnes of aluminium in the first year with the potential for significant expansion.
The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park has a current installed capacity of some 1,013 megawatts using photovoltaic solar panels.
DEWA is implementing an additional 1,850 megawatts of projects using solar panels and concentrated solar power (CSP). Eventually, this capacity will reach 5,000MW by 2030.
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