JSW Steel Pledges Rs 10,000 cr For Renewable Energy Investments

JSW Group Chairman Sajjan Jindal has made a strong pitch for going green in it’s 2021-22 annual report. With an aim to reduce the carbon footprint of its operations and reduce dependence on coal based power, Jindal said that the company will be investing Rs 10,000 crore to increase it’s use of renewable energy. The announcement was made by Jindal among other green initiatives.

Sajjan Jindal stated, “We have earmarked Rs 10,000 crore for investments to reduce our carbon emissions through various initiatives, such as increasing the use of renewable energy to replace thermal power, reduce our fuel rate through improved raw material quality via beneficiation, and deployment of Best Available Technologies (BAT).”

steel, along with other energy intensive industries like cement and Chemicals has been in the crosshairs for its high energy emissions. It’s an area where the Indian steel sector does worse than its global counterparts, thanks to the pressure to maintain competitiveness even as raw materials are available locally. The Union Ministry of Steel says that the steel industry emits about 8 per cent of total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the world. As opposed to this, in India the iron and steel industry contributes about 12 per cent to the total carbon emissions. The first step in a cleanup is the higher use of renewable sources of energy .

Sajjan Jindal said that the company has signed a pact for 1GW of renewable energy. As of April, 225 MW has already become operational while the remaining RE will online in phase wise manner. JSW Jindal wants to expand its business with greater use of renewables and digitization for operational efficiency for lesser carbon emissions.

Jindal mentioned, “We are consciously going beyond basic steel and are consistently maintaining the share of VASP (value-added and special products) in our product mix to over 50 per cent.”

He also mentioned, “At JSW Steel, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) is core to everything we do. We have committed to reduce our CO2 emissions intensity… by 42 per cent by 2030, compared to the base year of 2005, aligned with India’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).”

The eight-core-industries are moving towards de-carbonization of their operations to realize the net-zero target India.

Competitor and steel peer Arcelor Mittal has also recently inked an 800 MW deal for renewable energy for running its operations. Big announcements are also expected soon from Tata Steel on its own plans.

Recently, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited (DCBL), an Indian cement manufacturer and a subsidiary of Dalmia Bharat Limited, has increased its ground-mounted solar power plant capacity to 17.1MW (from 2.4 MW in 2014), in Cuttack, Odisha. NTPC has already installed a capacity of renewable energy of over 1.7 GW and the company wants to expand its RE portfolio to 60 GW by 2032.

These are the sectors that will also be expected to ‘support’ the Green Hydrogen mission of the country by voluntary or obligatory use of Green Hydrogen, possibly as early as 2025.