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Low-carbon iron startup Electra announced Tuesday that it has secured advance purchase agreements for its iron product from U.S. steelmaker Nucor and steel trader Toyota Tsusho, and its first environmental attribute credits will be purchased by Meta.
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Electra said it will build a 130,000 square foot demonstration facility in Jefferson County, Colorado, that is being supported by a $50 million grant from the Bill Gates-backed Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
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The green ironmaker said the facility is expected to be operational in mid-2026 and will be able to produce up to 500 tons of low-carbon iron using the company’s technology annually, according to the press release. The steel produced at the facility has already been contracted for use in iron sheet mills, specialty steel applications and auto manufacturing, the release said.
Meta’s environmental attribute credit purchase is a first for Electra. The agreement will give the social media and tech conglomerate credits connected to reduced emissions from Electra’s iron, the release said. The agreement also gives Meta, which has a goal to reach net-zero emissions across its supply chainby 2030, the option to purchase credits for emissions reductions from future Electra commercial facilities.
In addition to looking to advance the low-carbon iron and steel sector Meta has also experimented with utilizing other low-carbon materials like mass timber to lower its facilities’ embodied emissions. Meta announced in August that it had built an administrative building on an in-construction data center campus using mass timber and would be piloting its use in other similar buildings, warehouses and data halls at sites in Wyoming and Alabama.
Electra, founded in 2020, uses a low-temperature process that dissolves iron ore in an acidic solution before running electricity through the solution, according to the company’s website. The low-temperature method allows Electra’s technology to be compatible with intermittent renewable energy resources, like wind and solar, and used in electric arc furnaces to create steel.
Breakthrough Energy’s grant will come from its Breakthrough Energy Catalyst program, focused on scaling early commercial projects. The facility is also being supported by an $8 million Colorado industrial tax credit it received in May and a $186 million funding round Electra closed in April led by sustainable investment firm Capricorn Investment Group and Singapore-based investment firm Temasek.
