On Tuesday, February 2, Emirates Global Aluminium, the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer, announced that it secured BMW as the first customer for its solar-powered CelestiAL aluminium. According to the contract, EGA will supply 43,000 tonnes of the UAE’s first-of-a-kind aluminium, produced using solar power, to BMW every year.
Using solar aluminium from EGA will help BMW reduce around 222,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
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EGA has been supplying aluminium to BMW since 2013 worth a three-digit million-euro sum for the use in German carmaker’s engines and other parts.
EGA’s CelestiAL aluminium will meet half the annual requirements of BMW Group’s only light metal casting facility in Europe - Plant Landshut. Last year, Plant Landshut produced 2.9 million cast metal components, including engine parts such as cylinder heads and crankcases, parts of electric drive trains, and vehicle body parts.
EGA began CelestiAL aluminium production earlier this month using 560,000 megawatt hours of solar power yearly at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, which has a current installed capacity of some 1,013 MW that may eventually reach 5,000 MW by 2030.
Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, Chief Executive Officer of EGA, said: "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. One key example of this is by improving the efficiency of vehicles through reducing their weight. 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.”
Dr. Andreas Wendt, BMW AG Board Member for Purchasing and Supplier Network, said: “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."
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