We rely on aluminum in our everyday lives—from the phones and computers we use to work and communicate to the electric vehicles we drive. We use over 5.5 million tons of it every year. Aluminum is a critical material for the building blocks of a clean energy economy. As demand for clean technology like solar panels, heat pumps, wind turbines, transmission lines, and distribution infrastructure grows, the International Energy Agency estimates that demand for aluminum will nearly double to facilitate the build-out of the clean energy solutions needed to meet international climate targets. As we use more and more, it’s important now more than ever to ensure that primary aluminum is produced in a clean way.

We now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to decarbonize a major source of global emissions and fundamentally alter the political landscape in the U.S. for climate mitigation. Aluminum producers—smelters—can change how they manufacture aluminum by using clean electricity and transitioning away from highly polluting carbon anodes. By repowering and modernizing aluminum manufacturing, we can reshore the U.S. industry, revive local communities, and restore thousands of family-sustaining jobs to meet the global demand for sustainable aluminum in the coming decades. Between new federal programs and the increasing buildout of renewable energy, there are creative solutions to securing the low-carbon, affordable energy that aluminum smelters need. The U.S. can be a global leader in clean aluminum and, ultimately, a zero-carbon future.

Aluminum’s pathway to revitalization is clear, marrying industrial and climate policy. Today, the industry struggles with high costs at aging, polluting facilities. Three critical steps are required.

• Invest in clean energy: ~80% of greenhouse gas emissions and ~40% of the cost of aluminum from fossil fuel-powered smelters stem from electricity. Smelters in states like Kentucky, Indiana, and South Carolina are stuck with increasingly expensive coal power to run their smelters. Helping the aluminum industry access lower cost clean electricity will not only help lower emissions—making our air healthier to breathe, especially communities hit hardest by pollution—but make American facilities more competitive.
• Retrofit smelters: Old and creaking facilities must be modernized, both to improve operations and phase out onsite equipment responsible for additional pollution that sickens communities. Emerging technology will make it soon possible to dramatically lower emissions onsite by phasing out carbon anodes. With $6.3 billion available through the Inflation Reduction Act for industrial facilities, there’s a critical opportunity right now to secure funding to reinvest and clean up our existing facilities.
• Build demand: We use aluminum to make planes, vehicles, solar panels, and so much more. By 2035, the U.S. will require more aluminum than is consumed today, just to make the clean energy facilities needed to meet our climate targets. Early commitments from companies like Ford, Pepsi, solar manufacturers and more will be critical to justifying the major investments aluminum companies themselves must make to reimagine and rebuild the aluminum industry in the U.S.

All of this and more is needed. The good news is that we don’t have to wait to make progress. Clean energy is abundant and available. What stands in the way is state policies restricting clean energy access. The federal government has funding to invest in industrial revitalization. Will the aluminum industry - so critical to our clean energy future and the workers and communities that support these facilities - be prioritized?