Volvo Expands Electrification Strategy to Construction Equipment

The construction industry, as the primary contributor of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, plays a significant role in global warming. According to a report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the building sector was responsible for 40% of the global energy consumption and contributed a quarter of the global total CO2 emissions. Due to its multitude of activities and long term duration, the construction industry therefore has a significant negative impact on environmental sustainability.

Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) has been continually making strides to improve the sustainability of their machines and in turn improve upon the industries negative impact on the environment.

The company recently announced a demonstration project in Sweden that could reduce emissions on a construction jobsite by 71%. How you ask? Through electricity. 

An Electrifying Experiment

The innovative research project led by Volvo CE is focusing on the possibilities for powering all the construction machines in a quarry environment using electricity instead of diesel.

“The interesting thing about quarries is that you have so many different functions on one site,” said Erik Brandsma, director-general of the Swedish Energy Agency (SEA). “In many applications, excavators are sufficiently stationary to be powered with electricity through cables. Crushers in our demonstration quarry could also get their power through cables. We could maybe develop plug-in hybrid solutions for haulers. In the future, machines could be fully electrified with batteries, leading to the possibility of fully autonomous, driverless machines guided by computer,” Brandsma says.

This is why Volvo decided to test the electrification process on a quarry jobsite.

 “We calculate that if we could electrify a number of the functions in the quarry, we could reduce energy use by 71% (in kWh),” Brandsma says. “The intensity of the energy is much higher with electricity, that is why the potential savings are higher.”

The SEA has estimated the energy consumption of construction equipment in Sweden at 14 Terawatt–hours (TWh) compared to 19 TWh for trucks; 3.7 TWh for buses and 55 TWh for private cars. These figures represent the fact that construction is significant part of the energy system and the climate challenge in Sweden and throughout the world.

Proof of Concept

While Volvo has been in the business of producing electric cars for years, the idea of powering construction machines in a quarry using electricity instead of diesel was discussed by Volvo Construction Equipment (Volvo CE) employees a few years ago while visiting a customer’s job site. The company has been working on the technologies that will be applied in this research project since.

“Volvo CE is currently developing and testing the technologies and concept in-house before Skanska incorporates the demonstration machines into its operations at the end of 2018 – this will prove the technology is viable for the industry,” Joakim Unnebäck, research engineer, Volvo CE emerging technologies says.

Volvo CE has already been working on many of the technologies that will be utilized and the concepts will be taken forward in conjunction with researchers at Linköpings University and Mälardalens högskola.

Energy savings will be tracked when Skanska incorporates the machines into its operations at the end of 2018. “Volvo CE will compare fuel consumption from a work cycle using conventional machines to the combined energy consumption of those developed for the electric site demonstration project,” Unnebäck says.

Electric-powered construction machines will also significantly reduce noise emissions which is a particular concern in the fast growing urban environment.

The project aims to deliver significant reductions in fuel consumption, emissions and total cost of ownership while also improving productivity.

“If successful, the technology could be applied in large construction projects, waste recovery sites etc.,” Brandsma says. “This is a new step for the construction industry.”