Summary
Google says it is partnering with Stegra to help bring a large-scale, green hydrogen-based steel plant online in Boden, Sweden. The agreement covers environmental certificates linked to up to 91,000 metric tons of steel from the plant’s first production year.
Google says it has agreed to partner with Stegra to help bring a large-scale, green hydrogen-based steel plant online in Boden, Sweden. The company describes the facility as the world’s first large-scale steel plant designed to meet the International Energy Agency’s definition of near-zero-emissions steel production.
Stegra estimates that replacing coal with renewable hydrogen could reduce production emissions by up to 95% compared with traditional blast-furnace manufacturing. Under the agreement, Google will receive environmental attribute certificates linked to a portion of up to 91,000 metric tons of steel produced during Stegra’s first year of production.
What the agreement covers
The arrangement is based on environmental attribute certificates, or EACs. These certificates allow companies to support and claim the environmental attributes associated with qualifying lower-emissions production. Google says the purchase is intended to create demand for greener steel, help scale the technology and support the financing of early-stage industrial decarbonisation projects.
The announced volume is tied to Stegra’s first production year and is capped at up to 91,000 metric tons. The source describes the agreement in terms of certificates associated with the steel; it does not set out a separate schedule for physical steel deliveries to Google construction projects.
Google says the partnership forms part of its effort to use lower-carbon building materials in data-centre infrastructure. It estimates that using green steel could reduce the embodied carbon emissions of its data-centre construction by up to 40%. Embodied carbon refers to emissions associated with producing and using construction materials, rather than emissions from operating the completed facility.
How Stegra’s process replaces coal
Conventional steelmaking commonly uses coal in a blast furnace to process iron ore. Stegra’s plant will instead use renewable electricity to produce green hydrogen. That hydrogen will then react with iron ore to produce iron, which can be used in the subsequent steelmaking process.
The key change is the replacement of coal in the iron-production stage with hydrogen generated using renewable power. Stegra estimates that this change can cut production emissions by up to 95% relative to traditional blast-furnace production. The figure is an estimate from Stegra and is expressed as a maximum reduction, rather than a measured result from an operating plant.
Calling the facility “near-zero emissions” also reflects a defined emissions threshold rather than a claim that the plant will produce no emissions at all. Google says the design is intended to meet the IEA’s definition for near-zero-emissions steel production.
Why advance buyers matter for green steel
Steel is used extensively in buildings, infrastructure, vehicles and industrial equipment, but conventional production is difficult to decarbonise because coal is part of the process itself. A buyer agreement can therefore provide a market signal before a new production method has reached full commercial scale.
Google says it is also working through coalitions such as the Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform to bring more green building materials to market. In 2025, the company says it used low-carbon concrete, low-carbon steel or a combination of both in more than 20 construction projects.
The Stegra agreement extends that procurement approach to hydrogen-based steel. Its climate impact will depend on the plant reaching production and on the emissions performance of the resulting steel, but the announced arrangement gives a first-year production share a committed buyer and links Google’s construction demand to a lower-emissions manufacturing process.