SPECIALISED TRANSPORT Ӏ ELECTRIC SPMT
ELECTRIC AVENUE
Mammoet’s electric-powered SPMT is leading the charge in the battle to revolutionise the future of heavy transport. Julian Champkin reports.
Sustainability and carbon- neutrality are becoming ever more urgent considerations. Cranes have been moving
towards that goal for some years now: electric city cranes, tower cranes, even heavy-duty lattice crawlers are available, with performances that equal, or in some cases exceed, their diesel- powered brethren – with economy of operation and greatly reduced maintenance costs and schedules as bonuses. Like electric cars they are no longer niche products with poor endurances that only the most
dedicated of pioneers would consider; they are mainstream now, or at the very least next door to mainstream. Heavy lifting is well on the way to going carbon neutral. Heavy moving has been slower
Niek Bezuijen
to make that journey. There have been attempts at it; the first battery-powered self-propelled modular transporters (SPMTs) came out a few years ago but SPMTs remain primarily diesel powered. According to heavy-move specialist Mammoet this is because the sheer force that SPMTs are required to deliver has presented significant barriers to finding an equivalent solution to those used in cranes. But the company has made
progress – and now, it seems, is at a breakthrough point. Mammoet’s zero-emissions, electric-powered SPMT has performed its first major project – see box opposite – and several more; and it is part of a still wider vision and project. “If you ask me what my main vision is, I want us to redefine the construction site – at least at small scale initially – where we have electric or hydrogen cars, electric cranes, electric trucks, and have all this equipment cross-link and charge each other,” says Mathias Hoogstra, Mammoet’s global head of sustainability. You could say that he and
28 CRANES TODAY
Niek Bezuijen, global sustainability adviser at Mammoet, are spearheading the company’s move away from diesel.
SMART THINKING “We have to transition but we also have to be smart," continues Hoogstra. “We have to make sure it is economically viable. There are benefits with using electrical equipment, and they are not only the sustainability and CO2 reduction: there is less noise, it is cleaner, you can drive your equipment inside closed spaces, so you don’t have emissions inside a tunnel, for instance. In the nuclear sector everything should be without emissions, so this can be really of benefit there. “Our plan is to start small and to scale up quickly. We have had a diesel-based equipment fleet for years; because of that we have to focus on where we can really implement change, where can we really contribute to a client.” And Mammoet’s electric-
powered SPMT is a key part of this. There are, of course, other carbon-neutral fuels besides electricity so Mammoet’s decision to go for an electric solution was not foregone. “As for now we see
electrification as the main focus,”
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