Pioneer in completely electric project

Järfälla Municipality is one of the leading Swedish municipalities in climate transition. The municipality works actively to find ways to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. Take paving for example. Last autumn for the first time Peab paved asphalt solely with electric machines.

The environment and climate are highly prioritized matters in Järfälla Municipality. It was one of the first municipalities in Sweden to draw up a carbon dioxide budget back in 2017 and it intends to be carbon free by 2030. Last year it adopted a new ambitious environmental plan to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions decrease by at least 15 percent annually. Järfälla was also recognized for its environmental work when the municipality came in third in a ranking of Sweden’s best environmental municipalities.

Even Peab has been challenged by Järfälla’s ambitions. We shifted asphalt operations to biofuel in asphalt paving quite a while ago and in recent years Peab has tested replacing the oil-based binder bitumen with lignin, which is the natural binder in wood. Last fall Järfälla Municipality and Peab took the next step by paving asphalt solely with electric machines for the first time ever in Sweden. A pedestrian and bicycle path was paved in Järfälla with an electric asphalt paver, roller and vibratory plate compactor together with electric trucks. There are many advantages with this. In addition to completely eliminating carbon emissions, the reduced noise level makes the work environment better. Being able to pave asphalt without bothersome noise is particularly valuable in urban environments where proximity to schools, nursing homes, hospitals and such make keeping noise down imperative.

“Achieving the municipality’s ambitious goals like reducing greenhouse gas emissions requires a broad spectrum of measures, which means that as a municipality we have to make directional and tough demands on our contractors. The requirements in our procurements will have to become even more stringent if we’re going to reach 95 percent renewable fuel by 2030. We’re therefore very positive to the investment Peab has made in order to carry out this project with electric asphalt paving,” says Anna Edvall, environmental and operations controller in the construction and environment department of Järfälla Municipality.