Sustainability Environment Energy Conservation Hero

Environment

Energy
Conservation

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Energy conservation is good for the environment and our business.

U. S. Steel is a historic innovator and leader in the energy-efficient production of steel using blast furnaces. We also recognize the synergies between the integrated route and EAF techniques that reduce our carbon footprint and optimize operations.

Our published 2050 Roadmap shows our continued commitment to moving toward more energy-efficient processes at our facilities and researching and analyzing new technologies.

Our Climate Strategy Report ensures transparency for our climate-related activities and energy conservation projects by sharing information with relevant stakeholders, including customers, employees, and the communities where we operate.

Energy reduction projects are a key component to meeting our 2030 20% GHG emissions intensity reduction goal, especially at our mining, steelmaking, and finishing operations. Energy reductions can lead to Scope 1 emission reductions (less combustion of natural gas or carbon) as well as Scope 2 emission reductions (reduction in purchased electricity).

Besides capital improvements, we can also improve energy efficiency through process innovations, such as the Blast Furnace Thermal Control Model or-hot Strip Mill Thermomechanical Control Model and our relationships with different university consortia and U. S. Department of Energy projects.

2024 TOTAL ENERGY USAGE


2024 TOTAL ENERGY USAGE

The graph shows energy use from 2021 – 2024. Our use is reported in megawatt-hours, while our intensity is megawatt hours normalized by raw steel production. Note: Similar to our greenhouse gas emission reportion, for our energy consumption we included not just our steelmaking operations, but also our stand-alone mining and finishing operations.

Energy Conservation Projects

Spotlight: Energy Conservation Projects

Big River Steel

Entergy Arkansas

We collaborated with Entergy Arkansas on their Driver Solar project, a new 250-megawatt (MW) AC or 312 MW DC renewable energy plant that came online in December 2024. The plant is situated next to U. S. Steel’s Big River Steel Works in Osceola, Arkansas. A portion of the renewable energy generated will power the production of our verdeX® and InduX™ steels. Entergy Arkansas is also providing other means of accessing renewable energy to support U. S. Steel’s long-term net-zero goal, including decreasing our Scope 2 emissions. Entergy Arkansas’ Driver Solar field is expected to provide more than 555,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of solar energy in a typical year.

USSK

USSK’s Digital Studio

USSK has established a “Digital Studio” — a dedicated team developing advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) tools that pore over company data to provide cost- and energy-saving insights into all aspects of the business. Solutions suggested by Digital Studio’s modeling and predictions have uncovered ways to reduce the cost of raw material procurement, fine-tune the steelmaking process to cut CO2 emissions, and lower energy usage throughout USSK’s facilities.

Mon Valley Works

Owning and operating our own grid

Mon Valley Works Edgar Thomson facility has two generators that together produce about 1,500 MWh daily, yet only half the energy is used at the facility. The rest is fed to the Mon Valley power grid, owned and operated by U. S. Steel, supplying energy to the Irvin and Clairton facilities. Operating our own power grid means purchasing less electricity, which reduces Scope 2 emissions and increases efficiency and reliability.

Additionally, U. S. Steel's coke oven gas (COG) distribution pipeline distributes the extra COG produced at the Clairton facility to the Irvin and Edgar Thomson facilities to be used as a fuel source. Our average extra COG production is 80–90 million cubic feet per day (MMCFD) — enough to heat 44,000 homes.

Gary Works

Blast furnace gas reuse

At the Gary Works facility, blast furnace gas is used to fire the stoves that preheat the air going to the blast furnace. The remaining gas goes to the boiler house, generating steam for the turbines that supply wind to the furnace, meet steam needs for operations, and power our steam turbine generator to produce electricity. In 2024, Gary Works averaged 102.7 MWh of energy production, equaling 51% of energy needed to power the facility’s operations, through the reuse of the blast furnace gas.

Additionally, Gary Works provides the cement industry with granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) as a direct substitute for clinker, reducing the cement industry’s Scope 1 and upstream Scope 3 emissions. Clinker production is highly carbon-intensive due to the calcination of limestone, which releases signi ficant amounts of CO2. By substituting a portion of clinker with GBFS, the overall clinker content in cement is reduced. GBFS requires less energy to process compared to clinker, leading to lower CO2 emissions from fuel combustion during cement production.

2024 Energy Summary Charts

2024 Energy Summary

U. S. Steel Annual Total Energy Usage for Corporate Operations
Year Million megawatt hours of energy
2018 112.24
2019 107.35
2020 87.89
2021 104.19
2022 94.47
2023 95.69
2024 86.69

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Environmental Areas of Focus

U. S. Steel’s current environmental areas of focus align with the results of our ESG Materiality Assessment.