In March 2022, CE Delft was commissioned by the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management (Rijkswaterstaat) to study what the additional costs would be if 100% of all tools and vehicles on construction sites were battery-electric powered. This publication is a summary of the study. Our study identifies the three most cost-friendly ways of providing energy at the construction site:
In 2020, the additional cost of a zero-emission construction site for the cases studied averaged about 5% of the total direct project costs for the contractor. In 2030, the total project costs of a zero-emission construction site is comparable to a conventional construction site using diesel.
However, the relative additional costs of a zero-emission construction site is highly dependent on the type of construction site and varies between 3 and 12% of the total direct project costs in 2020 for the construction sites studied. The specific additional costs depend in particular on the proportion of direct equipment costs to the total project costs and the type of energy supply.
Within a bandwidth, the results give a good indication of the additional costs of zero-emission construction equipment and show that, according to the expected developments of battery and electricity prices, the costs will start to decrease towards 2030 and in many cases also provide a positive business case.