Zero Emission Construction Sites: Key Insights
The case for going electric on construction sites is no longer theoretical — it’s happening now, and the business case is increasingly compelling.
This post serves as a companion piece to our Klimatic Scale Podcast episode with expert Linda Zarai, Policy Advisor, Clean Construction, Bellona Europa.
The problem is bigger than most people realize
Non-road mobile machinery: the excavators, dumpers, and trucks that build our cities generates 108 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per year across the EU, around 3% of total EU emissions. Construction accounts for 30% of that. Beyond climate, diesel machinery poses serious health risks: workers operating diesel equipment have a 40% higher cancer risk, diesel fumes sink into trenches (heavier than air), and constant vibration causes chronic fatigue. These are problems that electrification solves directly.
The competitive pressure is also real. China’s electric construction machinery market share jumped from 1% to 70% between 2023 and 2025. Europe needs to move quicker.
It’s already being done and it works
Two concrete case studies from the webinar showed that fully electric construction sites are not a future concept:
Stockholm’s Project Pashken is the city’s first fully emission-free worksite, running electric 18-tonne wheeled excavators, Volvo and Scania electric trucks, and all handheld tools — all powered from a standard 63-amp mains supply with battery storage. The City used a competitive dialogue procurement model, bringing three contractors into an iterative planning process before finalizing the tender, which allowed them to understand what was actually technically and commercially feasible. A digital twin is being built with KTH to model replication across sites.
Germany’s first fully electric demolition project, run near Nuremberg at a Siemens facility, involved electric excavators, a crawler, wheel loaders, an electric crusher, and a mobile transformer tapping the building’s own grid before demolition began. The total cost premium was around 10% above conventional demolition and the team believes it can come down below 7% with more experience. Six weeks after the project, the City of Nuremberg issued its first public tender for a fully electric demolition site.
The economics are turning
HG Machineries, a Danish company that has focused exclusively on electric compact dumpers since 2018, demonstrated that over a seven-year lifecycle, their electric dumpers are 15–20% cheaper than diesel equivalents once fuel costs, idling, and resale value are factored in. The catch: you need to use the machine for at least two hours a day, 200 days a year, and you need to hold the long-term view. The upfront price is roughly double diesel, but the total cost of ownership is lower.
Their engineering insight: rather than converting a diesel drivetrain, they built four in-wheel electric motors, achieving 2–3× the energy efficiency of conventional approaches. Battery range is up to 12 hours on a single charge meaning no mid-shift charging disruptions.
Where to start
The most actionable advice from the panel was consistent: don’t wait for perfection, and don’t start with the hardest problems.
Copenhagen’s approach was cited as a model worth copying: from 2027, they are mandating zero emissions for all equipment under 8 tonnes on city sites. Smaller machines have disproportionately high NOx emissions relative to their size, so electrifying them first delivers the fastest environmental benefit with the least infrastructure complexity. Stockholm endorses the same logic.
For sites with limited grid access, the panelists pointed to mobile charging: such as utilizing a small van that charges machines overnight on demand, as a practical and already-deployed solution (currently operating in London). The energy and charging infrastructure space was flagged as a major opportunity for startups.
What’s still missing?
The panel was clear: the technology is largely there. Around 80% of the required equipment already exists in electric form. What’s lacking is experience — organizations and workers who know how to deploy and operate electric fleets efficiently. The bigger barrier, as one speaker put it plainly, is simply “the willingness to do it.”
On HVO as a transition fuel
Stockholm uses HVO 100 (hydro-treated vegetable oil) as its current baseline for all non-electric machinery, and the cost difference versus fossil diesel is essentially negligible. However, HVO reduces CO₂ on a lifecycle accounting basis, but does nothing for NOx, particles, or worker health. The risk of treating it as “job done” rather than as a bridge while electrification scales up, was flagged as a genuine concern.
For startups looking to engage
Karl from Stockholm offered direct, practical advice: don’t wait for tenders to be published. Contact procurement officers and innovation leads directly. Most people working in city infrastructure genuinely want to see change — find those people. And focus on data and measurement: there is a real gap in tools that can combine energy consumption, emissions tracking, and operational data across machines and brands into a single accessible view.
An in-person workshop to accelerate zero emission construction in Germany is planned for 4 May in Berlin, organized by Bellona and Klimatic Group. You can register to attend here.
