The Struggle to Electrify One of the World’s Dirtiest Industries
Construction, like air travel and ocean shipping, is one of the more intractable obstacles to a green transition.
Fog surrounds cranes on a Norwegian building site. Construction, across its entire supply chain, is responsible for around 23% of all greenhouse gas emissions.
Photographer: Cornelius Poppe/AFP/Getty Images
When construction workers arrived to begin transforming Oslo’s Olav Vs gate into a pedestrian promenade, locals rolled their eyes. It was September 2019, and the prospect of a jammed turnaround zone for taxis becoming an even noisier, polluted construction site was viewed with disdain.
But the naysayers were in for a surprise. Almost all of the machinery used, from excavators to wheel loaders, was powered either by battery or directly from the grid. This meant the site was significantly free of engine noise and direct emissions, proving you can use electrified machines for most construction operations.