New advisory board members will help solar steam leader meet the soaring demand for industrial decarbonization
NEW YORK, July 21, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Today, GlassPoint, the leader in decarbonizing the production of materials essential to the energy transition, announced that the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, Malcolm Turnbull, and the former COO of Alcoa, Tomas Sigurdsson, have joined its Advisory Board. The new Advisory Board members bring a unique mix of global leadership advancing sustainability in industrial operations. They will play a key role in helping GlassPoint bring its category-defining solar steam solution to help a wide range of industries essential to the energy transition achieve net-zero commitments, with a focus on mining, metals and manufacturing.
Malcolm Turnbull is a former Prime Minister of Australia and a notable advocate for clean energy. Before his term as the 29th Prime Minister of Australia, he held a number of parliamentary positions, including Minister for Environment and Water Resources. Before entering parliament in 2004, Mr. Turnbull was a successful trial lawyer and investment banker, where he led his own investment firm and served as a partner of Goldman Sachs.
Tomas Sigurdsson is CEO of HS Orka, Iceland’s leading private renewable energy company. He was formerly COO and executive vice president of Alcoa, the leading producer of aluminum, alumina and bauxite. He was responsible for the daily operations of global assets of the Company’s bauxite, alumina, energy and aluminum segments across geographies. He previously served as president of Alcoa EU and ME.
“Leaders of Malcolm and Tomas’ caliber joining our Advisory Board signifies a massive vote of confidence for GlassPoint,” said Rod MacGregor, CEO and founder of GlassPoint. “Their expertise and deep understanding of industrial market dynamics and clean energy will be invaluable in serving our mission of decarbonizing process heat at scale. I look forward to working with them to meet soaring demand for a proven solution that helps companies achieve net-zero commitments.”
The new advisors join GlassPoint at a time when hard-to-abate industries, like mining and metals, are increasingly seeking ways to cost-effectively reduce carbon emissions and meet net-zero commitments with rapidly approaching deadlines. A recent survey found that one fifth (21%) of the world’s 2,000 largest public companies have committed to meeting net-zero targets. These companies together represent sales of nearly $14 trillion.
“The world can’t meet its net-zero pledges unless industrial players make enormous leaps in decarbonizing operations,” said Turnbull. “Consider that it’s common for large industrial plants to require more energy than many cities, much of which goes to thermal processes. Solutions like GlassPoint, which help hard-to-abate industries reduce emissions up to 80% and are available today, will play a major role in combating climate change.”
“Decarbonizing industrial processes is incredibly challenging and therefore presents an enormous market opportunity,” added Sigurdsson. “GlassPoint is the only proven solution to decarbonize industrial process heat at scale and represents a critical solution for industrial leaders in a range of markets.”
This news comes on the heels of GlassPoint signing a Memorandum of Understanding with Saudi Arabian Mining Company (MA’ADEN) to develop the world’s largest solar process heat plant at MA’ADEN’s Alumina refinery, a 1.5GWth facility in Ras al Khair, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
About GlassPoint
GlassPoint decarbonizes the production of materials essential to the energy transition and makes a substantial impact combating climate change. The company builds, owns and operates large-scale solar steam facilities to reduce carbon emissions in hard-to-abate industries such as mining and metals, chemicals, construction materials, desalination and more. GlassPoint is the only solution proven at scale to reduce carbon emissions from industrial process heat and has built more than half of the solar steam capacity in the world. Learn more at glasspoint.com. To learn more about GlassPoint, visit: https://www.glasspoint.com/