Our Commitment to Energy Efficiency

Energy efficiency remains a key focus of Cleveland-Cliffs’ environmental strategy. As an energy intensive business, it’s critical that Cliffs is a responsible energy consumer. We continue to pursue opportunities to develop our portfolio of renewable investments, and internally we recover energy from valuable byproduct gases at several of our integrated facilities. Through the DOE’s Better Plants program, Cliffs aims to increase our resilience and reduce our carbon footprint through improvements in energy efficiency. We are also an ENERGY STAR® Industrial Partner.

    

Commitment to Fund Hydrogen Project at Toledo Direct Reduction Plant

To further reduce our GHG footprint at our new state-of-the-art Direct Reduction Plant, we have committed to partnering with hydrogen producers to evaluate the partial replacement of natural gas with hydrogen when it becomes commercially available in quantities sufficient to support our facility.

Without any modifications to the plant’s configuration, we could replace up to 30% of the plant’s natural gas consumption with hydrogen to reduce GHG emissions by approximately 450,000 metric tons per year. With additional equipment modifications and capital investments, we would be able to increase hydrogen usage up to 70% and reduce over 1 million metric tons of GHG emissions per year.

Renewable Energy

Cleveland-Cliffs has a target to purchase 2 million MWh of renewable energy annually that is newly developed or additional to the grid. Throughout 2022 we have made progress on this effort. We recently executed a 15-year power purchase agreement with EDP Renewables SA for 180 MW of the 200-MW Headwaters III Wind Farm in Randolph County, Indiana. The wind farm is expected to be operational in 2025 and will annually power the equivalent of more than 54,000 homes. We’ve also committed to participate in three regulated utilities’ voluntary renewable energy programs near our Dearborn, Weirton, Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor facilities. Our iron ore mining and pelletizing operations are served by Minnesota Power, whose overall renewables percentage for retail customers is near 50%.

Spotlight: Onsite Power Generation

Many of our steel and coke production plants send byproduct blast furnace and coke oven gases to onsite power plants to recover heat and energy. We’ve made significant investments at these plants over the last several years to increase generating capacity, gain efficiencies and reduce GHG emissions. Onsite power generation accounts for at least 75% of the plants’ energy needs, and more during peak times. To learn more about these capabilities please see our annual sustainability reports.