Arabic alliance for green aluminium

Emirates Global Aluminium and Masdar want to decarbonise international aluminium production through the use of renewable energies.

Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA), one of the world’s largest producers of aluminium, has signed an agreement for cooperation to decarbonise aluminium with the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company PJSC - Masdar, one of the world’s largest companies for renewable energies, as both companies announced in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE). Masdar and EGA want to explore the joint development of projects within the renewable energy sector, including potential battery storage as well as green hydrogen production and storage, in order to support decarbonisation of existing and future EGA companies in the United Arab Emirates. Additionally, Masdar and EGA want to assess international possibilities to provide new aluminium production plants with renewable energy.
Aluminium is a light-weight construction material and plays an important part in decarbonising many industries. However, the primary production of aluminium is energy-intensive; generating the necessary electric power using fossil fuel represents about 60 percent of carbon emissions by the worldwide aluminium industry.
In 2021, EGA was the first company in the world to commercially produce primary aluminium using solar energy. The exclusive customer for the approximately 39,000 tonnes produced was BMW. In 2023, EGA produced around 66,000 tons of solar aluminium with the trade name CelestiAL.
Masdar was founded in 2006 and acts as a power plant for clean energy in the United Arab Emirates. The company is active in more than 40 countries and has invested into a portfolio of renewable energy projects with a total capacity of more than 20 GW. Masdar has set itself the goal to reach a total capacity of at least 100 GW of renewable energy by 2030, and to reach an annual production capacity of up to 1 million tons of green hydrogen by the same year.
In Germany, Masdar holds shares in the Iberdrolas offshore windpark Baltic Eagle in the Baltic Sea, and there is a partnership between Masdar and RWE for the joint development of two British offshore wind projects with 3 gigawatts.
Source: EGA, Masdar