Amazon Web Services (AWS) has agreed with SSAB to pilot the use of green steel in one of its three new data centers in Sweden.
The green steel will be used to construct the roof and wall structures at the AWS Västerås data center. SSAB subsidiary Ruukki Construction will supply the steel for the data center.
SSAB has developed a novel steel-making technology with iron ore company LKAB and Swedish energy giant Vattenfall. The Hybrit (hydrogen breakthrough ironmaking technology) solution uses hydrogen produced from carbon-free electricity to make iron. The iron is then converted into steel using an electric arc furnace (EAF) powered by renewable energy.
“We are thrilled to welcome AWS as a new partner. By choosing steel made with the Hybrit technology, AWS shows it’s possible to reduce the carbon footprint of data center construction regardless of whether the steel is made from scrap or virgin iron ore,” said Thomas Hörnfeldt, VP of sustainable business at SSAB.
According to the company, the steel produced has one-tenth of the carbon emission of a conventional blast furnace to basic oxygen furnaces (BF-BOF).
AWS will procure green steel from SSAB’s Hybrit pilot facility in Luleå before production volumes increase. The mill, announced in April, will have a capacity of 2.5 million tons per year and be supplied with a mix of fossil-free sponge iron from the Hybrit plant in Gällivare and recycled scrap.
The new mill's startup is planned for the end of 2028, with a total capacity one year later. However, limited quantities of steel are expected to be available earlier for the Amazon project.
“Reducing the embodied carbon associated with the construction of our data centers is a key priority for AWS as we work to achieve net-zero carbon across our operations by 2040,” said Kellen O’Connor, managing director of Europe North at AWS.
"By partnering with innovative local companies like SSAB and Ruukki, we’re taking an important step to decarbonize the materials used in our data centers and set a new standard for sustainable infrastructure," O'Connor continued.
In addition, AWS also plans to use steel made from recycling scrap through an EAF in its Eskilstuna and Västerås data centers. The recycled steel will represent 70 percent of the steel used in construction. EAFs emit a quarter of the emissions seen in blast furnaces to basic oxygen furnaces (BF-BOFs), which burn coal.
The final data center in Katrineholm will deploy scrap-EAF steel for all the structural open steel sections of the installation.
Scrap-EAF steel production is currently limited by how much waste steel and iron is produced. The International Energy Agency has projected that by 2050, scrap steel will only meet 45 percent of global demand. This increases pressure on green steel producers to scale primary steel production through low-carbon energy sources.
The data centers are located on the outskirts of Stockholm in Västerås, Eskilstuna, and Katrineholm and are expected to be completed by mid-2025.
AWS first announced plans for a Swedish cloud region in Stockholm in 2017, with the actual launch coming in late 2018. Subsequently, it bought more land in the Katrineholm and Eskilstuna areas of the city, where it already has operations, for future expansion.
This article has been updated
