A clip from a new Billy Bob Thornton show called Landman has gone viral recently for its star’s poignant diatribe over the supposed dirty secrets of clean energy.
“There’s nothing clean about this,” Thornton’s character Tommy says. “Do you have any idea how much diesel they have to burn to mix that much concrete? Or make that steel and haul this s*** out here and put it together with a 450-foot crane?”
“In its 20-year lifespan, it won’t offset the carbon footprint of making it,” he says, referencing a nearby wind turbine.
While I must admit Billy Bob is a fantastic actor and convincing black gold cowboy, what his soliloquy possesses in sex appeal, it lacks in substance.
While writing this article, I stumbled upon a fresh Newsweek fact-check of the clip that’s more extensive than anything I would’ve put together- feel free to check it out when you’re done reading this- but the gist of it is that the Landman assertion about clean energy never offsetting its carbon footprint is dead wrong.
However, the former Sling Blade star makes some good points, particularly when he points out that the processes involved in the construction of solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, and other clean tech are themselves far from clean.
The iron and steel industries are particularly easy targets for criticism, accounting for 11% of global carbon emissions and between 7% and 9% of global greenhouse emissions. Steel sector emissions have averaged approximately 3.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide per year since 2019, according to Global Environmental (GEM) calculations- more than all the passenger cars on Earth.
How can we decarbonize the processes that make up the very structures we rely on to decarbonize?
A newly-formed company called Green & Clean Power (GCP) just raised a few hundred million dollars to try something novel.
A steal of a steel deal
GCP’s solution for cleaning up the steel supply chain is to plop behind-the-meter renewable generation and a battery energy storage system (BESS) next to a steel recycling mill, eventually supplying it with 40% of its total annual power consumption.
This week, the company announced it had raised approximately $300 million of debt and equity financing to build and operate a 105-megawatt (MW) solar farm and an accompanying 160 MWh BESS on nearly 500 acres of property in Osceola, Arkansas adjacent to Hybar, a scrap metal recycling steel rebar mill currently under construction that is expected to be operational by the summer of 2025. The solar array and storage facilities are also already being built and should be online by the fall of 2025.
KfW IPEX-Bank provided about $165 million in construction debt financing; Aurora Energy Research served as its Market Advisor. The Arkansas Teacher Retirement System provided an additional $100 million in a takeout financing commitment.
“The sustainable production and recycling of steel plays a key role in global decarbonization,” noted Dr. Velibor Marjanovic, a member of the management board of KfW IPEX-Bank. “After providing financing for the Hybar rebar mill in 2023, we’re delighted to now support the clean power supply for this flagship project. With this financing, we again underline our commitment to projects that contribute to the worldwide transformation towards a carbon-neutral future.”
DEPCOM Power will serve as the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm for both the solar and battery energy storage components of the project.
Once online, GCP will initially supply behind-the-meter renewable energy to Hybar, its sister company, which will be used to produce a “full complement of high-yielding rebar” meant to be used in large infrastructure projects. Hybar will get the rest of the energy it needs from Entergy Arkansas.
“To our knowledge, this will be the first renewable power installation in the industry to provide a steelmaking facility with solar-generated electricity on a behind-the-meter basis,” observes Ari Levy, partner at Global Principal Partners and CFO of both GCP and Hybar.
GCP and Hybar believe its utilization of 100% recycled raw materials (scrap metal), coupled with its access to renewable power will position Hybar as the steel producer with one of the lowest, if not the lowest, scope one and scope two emissions in the world.
“Unlike other industrial businesses, which seek to invest in renewable power generation projects hundreds of miles away from their closest operation as a means of carbon offsetting, GCP’s production of solar and renewable-stored energy will be directly connected to Hybar,” Levy added, noting the clean energy generation component was a crucial part of the deal for the lenders.
And now we wait…
Now Green & Clean Power will initiate its application for interconnection into the Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) grid. If you’re a frequent reader of this site you’ve probably come across some gripes about the speed of the interconnection process in most parts of the country, and you might guess this could be a significant holdup for the project- and you’d be right.
GCP anticipates that obtaining interconnection will take about three years. Once connected to the grid, GCP will be able to provide its solar-generated and battery-stored power for sale to third-party customers- namely its pals at Hybar.
We won’t know how well this arrangement works on either side until after that happens, but it seems like a promising option for making an industry perceived to be especially dirty a little cleaner.
