Volvo Construction Equipment, the Swedish Energy Agency, Skanska Sweden construction firm and two universities have been working on what the group is calling the Electric Site project. The $30 million project is ambitious, aimed at creating an electrified quarry where not only are carbon emissions reduced by up to 95 percent, but also the total cost of quarry ownership can possibly be reduced by 25 percent.
While examining how to electrify typical quarry machines, researchers soon realized that this project was an opportunity to address inefficiencies throughout a quarry, particularly in the ways aggregate is handled. “It actually gets more interesting as we zoom out to broaden the perspective to the whole site,” says Andreas Sunesson, fleet and technology manager for contractor Skanska Sweden.
“A lot of what goes into production is the movement of the rock,” adds Johan Sjoberg, technical specialist in site automation. “Currently, there are a lot of yellow machines that move rock around and stockpile it.”
One particular problem is the use of large rigid-frame or articulated dump trucks to move aggregates from Point A to Point B for processing. Sometimes the processing path is not straightforward, involving intermediate staging areas (and cost) to the overall operation.
Then there’s the human element. If production is foremost, truck operators may feel encouraged to speed back to the loading point, only to end up back in a queue behind other trucks, a situation that results in both additional idling and tire wear.
Using today’s machines to address these problems presents limited solutions, says Sunesson. Examining the entire site instead gave the research participants the opportunity to identify which activities add value, and which could be eliminated.
“The aggregates business is a local business,” Sunesson adds. “Our products are not competing on a global market, and it’s very comfortable for us as quarry owners to use the haulers because we don’t need any detailed planning to use them.”
