ENERGY CASE STUDY

The Rising Global Demand for Clean Energy

To achieve net-zero by 2050, industries must innovate, and consumers must adopt new clean energy practices. Over the next decade alone we will need at least 300% more electricity-generating capacity than the country now has in order to meet the massive global demand for technology. Nucor is committed to leading the way.

Adding to Wind and Solar

Wind and solar energy are important tools in the transition from carbon-emitting fuels. But in their current form, they don’t generate sufficient baseload power for large-scale industrial operations and energy-consumptive businesses. While these renewables represent the start of a broader clean energy transition, critical businesses like transportation, steelmaking and commercial data centers require new clean energy sources at industrial scale.

Image courtesy of Helion

Envisioning a new impact with our investment in Helion

Today, roughly 40% of Nucor electricity is derived from clean sources. Most of this electricity powers our electric arc furnace (EAF) process. While EAFs are the most efficient commercial steelmaking process in the world, they rely on large amounts of electricity. This is why we constantly seek out new sources of clean energy, with a goal of net-zero operations by 2050. One such promising technology is fusion.

In 2023 we launched a strategic partnership with Helion, a fusion energy company focused on generating a zero-carbon supply of electricity. The company’s technology is designed to deploy commercial fusion power swiftly at scale, and their technical results back-up their path to commercialization.

Beyond the goal of bringing a 500MW fusion power plant online by 2030, the partnership allows us to explore other promising applications, not least of which is the potential for this first-of-its-kind power plant to also power nearby businesses and the surrounding community.

Our Responsibility to the Clean Energy Transition

We firmly believe the private sector must lead the way to industrial decarbonization if we are to meet the targets set forth by the Paris Agreement. We also believe investing in clean energy innovation requires collaboration across disciplines and industries. Together with our partners and customers, the Nucor team is doing exactly that.