Renewable Energy Solution at former ArcelorMittal Belval Site

Yesterday marked the launch of a heat recovery system produced by the ArcelorMittal Belval plant which will supply the heating network of the Belval district.

Luxembourg Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Étienne Schneider, and the Chairman of the Board of Directors of ArcelorMittal Luxembourg and member of the Board of Directors of ArcelorMittal, Michel Wurth, have inaugurated a heat exchanger plant generated during the production of steel sheet piles on the ArcelorMittal Belval site.

The recovered heat, which is equivalent to the annual need of 4,000 houses, is injected into the 20-kilometre Sudcal heating network, which supplies heat to the entire Belval district as well as the Nonnewisen and Sommet districts, ie some 200 customers and 70% of Sudcal's heating requirements.

This cooperation allows Sudcal to benefit from an easily available energy source, which was not used until then, and thus to avoid consuming the equivalent of 1.6 million litres of heating oil annually. This in turn corresponds to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of some 5,000 tonnes. For ArcelorMittal, this project is part of its sustainable development and circular economy approach in Luxembourg. This commitment is reflected in various initiatives aimed at reducing the electricity consumption of the facilities and the consumption of natural gas, saving water used for cooling production lines, recycling and upgrading steel co-products.

Etienne Schneider commented on the launch: "This device joins the logic of the strategic Rifkin study. The synergy between a local industrial player and the Sudcal energy supplier makes it possible to valorise local resources in heat that were not used and thus to offer a sustainable energy supply for an entire neighbourhood ".