"Journey to Beautiful China" enters Baotou Steel and talks about green and low-carbon transformation of the steel industry

Recently, the "Beautiful China Tour" event was held in Baotou City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Many experts and business representatives from the ecological environment system jointly exchanged and discussed the green development path of steel enterprises under the background of "double carbon" and promoted green and high-quality development of the steel industry.

2024 is a critical year for achieving the goals and tasks of the "14th Five-Year Plan". It is also an important year for deepening the battle against pollution and comprehensively promoting the construction of a beautiful China. In this context, steel companies should fully implement the new development concept, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, and strive to promote high-quality development.

The reporter saw that at the site of the market-oriented 5MW distributed photovoltaic project of Baotou Iron and Steel (Group) Co., Ltd.(hereinafter referred to as Baotou Steel Group) Metallurgical Slag Comprehensive Utilization Development Co., Ltd., the first Tiandashan distributed photovoltaic project in the autonomous region, rows of neat photovoltaic power generation panels stand in the sun, constantly gathering clean energy, allowing the former black slag mountain to embark on a green development path.

The picture shows the distributed photovoltaic project of Baotou Steel Group.

It is reported that this project will be successfully connected to the grid at the end of 2023. Through the "photovoltaic power generation + slag mountain ecological management" model, we will deeply develop slag mountain resources and build distributed photovoltaics on the iron slag mountain with an altitude of 1300 meters and an area of 105.67 hectares. Make full use of solar energy resources in Baotou City, efficiently utilize abandoned idle land resources, and restore and control the slag mountain ecology. The installed capacity of the project is 5 megawatts, covers an area of 80,000 square meters, and the average annual power generation capacity can reach approximately 8 million kilowatt-hours.

This is a vivid practice of Baotou Steel Group in adhering to ecological priority and green development.

In addition, the implementation of this project has also explored a new path for the resource utilization of steel slag. According to the relevant person in charge, the bracket counterweight in the project innovatively introduced steel slag as aggregate and made of mixed gravel, concrete, etc., effectively utilizing Baotou Steel's solid waste resources. This not only realizes the management of slag mountains and comprehensively utilizes slag mountain resources, but also provides high-quality and sufficient green energy for the high-quality development of enterprises.

At the symposium and exchange meeting on the event of "Beautiful China" entering Baotou Steel, experts from relevant institutions and departments such as China Academy of Environmental Sciences, National Center for Strategic Research and International Cooperation on Climate Change, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Department of Ecology and Environment, Baotou City Bureau of Ecology and Environment gathered together with representatives from Baotou Steel Group to conduct in-depth exchanges on the green and low-carbon development of the steel industry.

In recent years, Baotou Steel Group has achieved remarkable results in the construction of ecological civilization, including air pollution prevention and control, water pollution prevention and control, circular economy, energy-saving technological transformation and new energy construction.

Li Xiao, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee and General Manager of Baotou Steel Group, said that in recent years, Baotou Steel Group has actively promoted the construction of clean energy projects. Currently, 52.43MW of photovoltaic power generation projects have been completed and put into operation, and 44MW of photovoltaic projects under construction. At the same time, Baotou Steel Group aims at "green mines" and "zero-carbon mines", uses idle dump sites and surrounding land in the Kuangqu, and invests 650 million yuan to build the first green electricity stock replacement demonstration project in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region-150MW Green Power direct power supply project optimizes the power consumption structure of Baiyun Kuangqu through the construction of renewable energy projects and accelerates the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. After all clean energy projects are completed and put into operation, the annual power generation will reach 570 million kilowatt hours, save 70,000 tons of standard coal, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 330,000 tons, providing a solid foundation for the introduction of green electricity into steel.

The relevant person in charge of Baotou Steel Group introduced that in the next step, Baotou Steel Group will accelerate the transformation of the company's production methods to green and low-carbon, continue to make great efforts to adjust the structure and optimize the layout, and unswervingly promote the industry to be high-end, intelligent and green. Transformation direction, accelerate the formation of an industrial development model with high technological content, low resource consumption, and low environmental pollution, and enhance new momentum for development.

Baotou Steel Group's green and low-carbon practices and achievements are a microcosm of Baotou City's active promotion of ecological civilization construction. In recent years, Baotou City has made great efforts to promote the improvement of "beauty" and "quality" of the ecological environment. The economic structure has been continuously optimized and the ecological environment has been continuously improved.

In terms of green and low-carbon transformation, Baotou City has coordinated to promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, improved the policy system to deal with climate change, and explored a green development path of "low-carbon projects + financial support + government guidance" with local characteristics. Since the launch of the climate investment and financing pilot construction in Baotou City in 2022, the city has seized strategic opportunities, actively explored innovation in climate investment and financing product models, effectively guided more financial funds to flow to the field of climate change response, and cultivated green productivity with high-level and high-precision protection. Baotou City successfully issued more than 10 national and regional first climate financial products, including the country's first long-term loan in the CCUS field, the country's first carbon-neutral green corporate bond in the steel industry, and the country's first grassland carbon sink remote sensing index insurance. As of the third quarter of 2024, the city's green credit balance reached 38.244 billion yuan, a 300% increase compared with before the climate investment and financing pilot construction. A total of 2.498 billion yuan of carbon emission reduction support tools have been used, directly driving carbon emission reductions of 1.8789 million tons. The relevant person in charge of the Baotou City Ecological Environment Bureau said that Baotou City will make every effort to build ecological civilization in Baotou City and strive to be the vanguard of the construction of beautiful Inner Mongolia.

It is reported that this event was hosted by China Environment News and hosted by Baotou Steel Group.