One company, called Stegra, is close to launching the world’s first commercial green steel plant, which will make the metal using hydrogen from renewable sources. (You may know this company by its former name, H2 Green Steel, as we were included in the list of 2023 Climate Technology Companies to Watch.) When I started following Stegra a few years ago, the plan for a large green steel plant was huge. it feels so far away. Now the company says it will start producing steel at the plant next year. The biggest challenge in this place is money. Building a new steel plant is expensive—Stegra has raised nearly $7 billion. And the company’s product will be more expensive than conventional materials, so it will have to find customers willing to pay (so far). There are other efforts to clean up steel that will all face the same challenge around money, including another spin in Sweden called Hybrit and startups like Boston Metal and Electra, which use different processes. Read more about green steel, and the potential obstacles we face as we enter a new phase of commercialization, in this short blurb and our longer feature on Stegra. Cow burp cure Humans love burgers and steaks and milk and cheese, so we raise a lot of cows. The problem is, these animals belong to a group with funky digestive processes that produce a lot of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas). Many companies are trying to develop drugs that help reduce methane emissions.
2025 is a critical year for climate technology
