3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
The near-term potential value in advancing Luxembourg’s circularity practices is estimated to
approach €1 billion annual net-material cost savings, including generating several thousand jobs
within 36 months. This would require scaling circular activities throughout the automotive,
construction, financial, logistics, manufacturing, and RDI sectors. Several dozen actions are
underway in Luxembourg to expedite circular economy benefits.
Regional and Global Export Growth Opportunities
Circularity is viewed as a local opportunity as well as an export opportunity, given the massive
global economic potential. The report, Luxembourg as a Knowledge Capital and Testing Ground
for the Circular Economy, highlights the €7 trillion in renewable energy economic growth
worldwide, and how Luxembourg’s key industries could prosper by providing the important
material components, including manufactured steel, glass and carbon composites.
Luxembourg’s financial sector, with some €3 trillion of investment funds, could also play a
critical role in financing circularity across the 28 Member States. That estimate may seem high,
but it turns out to be very modest.
Consider the following renewable power examples for wind and solar, which are discussed in
greater detail in the TIR Strategy Study chapter on Industry. Luxembourg’s ArcelorMittal is a
major player in the wind power industry, most recently involved in providing the steel for
constructing the 30 MW wind platforms off the cost of Scotland. Each MW required roughly
116 tons of ArcelorMittal’s (recycled) steel.
How many megawatts of wind power could be installed at competitive prices over the next
three decades? The most recent nation-by-nation world renewable energy assessment provides
illustrative calculations. 302 One-third of total global energy needs can be satisfied with 1.96
million turbines of 5 MW each (1.2 million offshore and 0.76 million onshore). The calculated
world market opportunity amounts to more than €19 trillion (2016€) between now and 2050.
And how much steel would it demand? Assuming 500 tonnes of steel per 5 MW turbine, the
total global amount would be more than one billion tonnes, or roughly 12 times the amount of
steel ArcelorMittal shipped in 2014.
302 Jacobson, Mark and Mark Delucchi et al. (2015) 100% Clean and Renewable Wind, Water, and Sunlight (WWS)
All- Sector Energy Roadmaps for 139 Countries of the World, December 2015,
https://web.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/susenergy2030.html.
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