Stockholm: Emission-free construction site

In the block Persikan in Södermalm, Stockholm, the city is building a new neighbourhood. The groundwork will be emission-free, with machines and tools running solely on electricity. The wheeled excavator ,Elsa, weighs 18 tonnes and is the first electrically powered machine on site, and the first of its kind in Sweden. The construction project is being monitored by KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, for four years. The research has been made possible thanks to a grant from the Swedish Energy Agency. ”There are major knowledge gaps in going from a regular to an emission-free contract with only electric machines and vehicles.

– There are many challenges that we now have the opportunity to learn about together with KTH. Does an emission-free contract work? When should the machines and lorries charge? Does the regular work schedule work or does it have to be changed? What do the calculations look like? These are things they will look at more closely, and then we will share them with other construction projects that are switching to electric power,” says Per-Erik Österlund, project manager for environmental vehicles and sustainable transport at the environmental administration.

Stockholm’s environmental goal is for the city to be completely fossil-free by 2040, with the interim goal of a fossil-free organisation by 2030.

– There are not so many years until then, so it is important that we convert everything that can be converted, and this is a good example of that,” says Åsa Lindhagen, Deputy Mayor of Environment and Climate Change.