BMW Group becomes first customer for UAE’s solar-powered CelestiAL aluminium

The BMW Group has become the first customer for Emirates Global Aluminium’s (EGA) CelestiAL aluminium which is made using solar power.

EGA will supply 43,000 tonnes of CelestiAL aluminium to BMW Group per year.

EGA is the world’s biggest ‘premium aluminium’ producer and the largest industrial company in the UAE, outside of oil and gas, and has supplied metal to BMW Group since 2013 for use in the German carmaker’s engines and other parts.

Using solar aluminium from EGA will reduce BMW Group’s emissions by 222,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.

In a press statement issued by EGA, it said that the BMW Group’s annual supply contract with EGA is worth “a three-digit million-euro sum”, without specifying the amount.

EGA’s CelestiAL metal will cover almost half the annual requirements of Plant Landshut, the BMW Group’s only production facility for light metal casting in Europe.

Last year, Plant Landshut produced 2.9 million cast metal components including engine parts such as cylinder heads and crankcases, parts for electric drive trains, and vehicle body parts.

EGA’s CelestiAL aluminium is made using electricity generated at the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park. EGA began production of CelestiAL earlier this month, and it is the first time that solar power has been used to produce aluminium commercially.

Producing aluminium is energy intensive, and generating electricity accounts for some 60 per cent of the global aluminium industry’s greenhouse gas emissions. The use of solar power significantly reduces the emissions associated with aluminium smelting.

EGA’s sourcing of solar power from the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park through Dubai’s electricity grid is tracked and traced through the use of the International Renewable Energy Certification System.

The Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park has a current installed capacity of some 1,013 MW with capacity to eventually reach 5,000 MW by 2030.

Under a recent agreement struck between the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) – the operator of the solar park – and EGA, the former will supply EGA’s smelter with 560,000 megawatt hours of solar power annually from the facility, sufficient to produce 40,000 tonnes of aluminium in the first year itself.

Read: UAE becomes world’s first country to produce aluminium using solar power

“We are delighted that the BMW Group is the first customer for EGA’s low carbon CelestiAL. Aluminium is lightweight, strong and infinitely recyclable and that is why it has an important role to play in developing a more sustainable society and making modern life possible. One key example of this is by improving the efficiency of vehicles through reducing their weight. But it also matters how sustainably aluminium is made,” said Abdulnasser Bin Kalban, CEO of EGA.

Dr Andreas Wendt, BMW AG Board Member for Purchasing and Supplier Network, added: “It is a special honour for us to be the first customer to receive aluminium produced using solar electricity. Aluminium plays an important role in e-mobility and using sustainably produced aluminium is tremendously important to our company.”