State Secretary Vivianne Heijnen of Infrastructure and Water Management is making 60 million euros available for emission-free machinery in the construction industry. She wants to encourage construction companies to change to machines such as electric cranes, hydrogen-powered concrete mixers and battery-powered excavators. “A good thing and also a necessity, because low-nitrogen construction is becoming increasingly relevant”, says Menno Rubbens, director cepezedprojects.
tackling the nitrogen problem
Heijnen wants to tackle the nitrogen problem with the subsidies. “With emission-free machines, we are helping to eliminate that problem further and further.” According to the central government press release, “builders can be compensated up to 40 percent of the price difference with diesel by the subsidy. For smaller operators, this percentage is higher than for larger operators, in order to also help smaller companies make the switch.”
pi scheveningen
Rubbens, Circular Hero 2022, is involved in a low-nitrogen construction project in Scheveningen. Within the walls of the PI Haaglanden, a temporary care center is being built right next to a protected Natura 2000 area. The project is being built with low nitrogen, thanks to an integral cooperation from the first sketch onwards between the project developer (Du Prie bouw & ontwikkeling and cepezedprojects), architect (cepezed), contractor (Du Prie bouw & ontwikkeling), structural engineer (IMd Raadgevende Ingenieurs) and client (Rijksvastgoedbedrijf).
In this way, the building was designed to be remountable and prefabricated. On the building site, the components are assembled dry, which causes few emissions. But Du Prie bouw & ontwikkeling also screwed the foundations electrically, the sanitary facilities were lifted into place as a prefab-package and the transport of equipment, parts and personnel is low emission or electric.
more information
Read the entire press release about the national government's subsidy scheme and read more about the project at PI Scheveningen on our website. Last week there was a discussion evening with various stakeholders (including politicians, accelerators and project developers) on building nitrogen-free, organised by Pakhuis de Zwijger, The Circle and the Dutch Green Building Council.
Subsidy for making construction machines more sustainable is a good step
