EMSTEEL Group and ENEC partner for industrial decarbonisation
By acquiring nuclear-generated Clean Energy Certificates, the firm gains access to low-carbon electricity
EMSTEEL Group has announced significant updates with Emirates Nuclear Energy Company (ENEC) to decarbonise steel production. The collaboration involves sourcing clean, nuclear-generated electricity certified under Abu Dhabi’s Clean Energy Certificates Program (I-REC Standard), which is managed by Emirates Water & Electricity Company (EWEC).
The Clean Energy Certificates Program showcases how nuclear energy contributes to clean manufacturing and reinforces the UAE’s position in sustainable industrial growth. This progress aligns with EMSTEEL’s strategic sustainability identity, TrueGreen, which encompasses its decades-long decarbonisation initiatives.
The partnership is said to build upon a decade-long collaboration between EMSTEEL and ENEC. During the construction of the Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, the first multi-unit operational nuclear energy plant in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, EMSTEEL played a vital role by supplying 160,000t of nuclear-grade rebar, meeting a significant portion of the project’s total rebar requirements.
By acquiring nuclear-generated Clean Energy Certificates, EMSTEEL now gains access to low-carbon electricity, directly reducing Scope 2 emissions and contributing to the overall reduction of the carbon footprint of steel produced in the UAE.
This move positions EMSTEEL as the first regional steelmaker to utilise Clean Energy Certificates from nuclear energy, demonstrating innovation and accountability in one of the most challenging sectors to address, the statement outlined.
EMSTEEL has already integrated 86% of its steel operations and 14% of its cement production with clean electricity. Notably, this includes 1,484,067 megawatt-hours from nuclear power and 651,594 megawatt-hours from solar certificates, collectively powering both its steel and cement operations. EMSTEEL’s goal is to achieve 100% clean electricity by 2030, aligning with its long-term decarbonisation roadmap, it added.
Eng Saeed Ghumran Al Remeithi, Group CEO of EMSTEEL said, “Clean energy, technology enablement, and verified data are central to credible industrial decarbonisation. Through TrueGreen, we are integrating these principles into every aspect of our operations. This synergy with ENEC strengthens our clean energy portfolio and supports our long-term strategy to scale low-carbon steel production. It reflects how national partnerships can accelerate industrial transformation and position the UAE as a global leader in sustainable manufacturing.”
Mohamed Al Hammadi, Managing Director and Group Chief Executive Officer of ENEC added, “Pairing ENEC’s carbon-free baseload electricity with EMSTEEL’s continuous industrial load demand shows what the energy transition looks like in practice, clean power at industrial scale, delivered with traceable certificates while in parallel ensuring grid reliability.”
He added, “This collaboration turns a decade of partnership into a repeatable model for hard-to-abate sectors, lowering Scope 2 emissions today while strengthening competitiveness and supply-chain certainty. As demand from AI, electrification, and industry grow, Barakah’s proven performance gives the UAE a platform to decouple growth from emissions and to export proven solutions to generate abundant clean electricity at scale to a highly efficient timeline.”
The agreement underscores the pivotal role of cross-sector partnerships in driving the UAE’s industrial transformation. EMSTEEL is setting a regional benchmark for low-carbon steelmaking, showcasing how energy transition and industrial competitiveness can coexist to support the UAE’s Net Zero 2050 Strategy.
The Barakah Nuclear Energy Plant, owned and developed by ENEC, generates 40TWh annually, supplying up to 25% of the UAE’s total electricity demand and mitigating around 22.4m tons of carbon emissions annually, the statement concluded.
