It is a major operation of ten years: making truck manufacturer Scania in Meppel more sustainable. An important step has been taken today with the construction of a new extension. The factory wants to get rid of the gas.
The current factory in Meppel has been there now for twenty years. According to manager Erik de Gilde, a replacement was needed anyway. “Now we have the choice to do it again with gas or go for sustainable. We did the latter.”
In the factory in Meppel, hundreds of parts of trucks are painted per day. The energy bill is high due to cooling and heating the paint. The temperature fluctuates in the oven during the process between 23 and 85 degrees. “We now use 1.2 million cubic meters of natural gas. That is about the same as a thousand households. We are going to reduce that and no longer means CO₂, but also no more precipitation of nitrogen.”
With the surrounding protected nature areas such as De Wieden and De Weerribben, that is an important motivation for Scania. “That certainly plays a role,” says De Gilde. “Because that means that we burden nature less.”
That the company wants to switch to green electricity has several reasons. For example, Scania has committed itself to the Climate Agreement in Paris and it is the wish of the staff and customers to green.
A few years ago, Scania in Meppel investigated all that is possible in terms of sustainability at a new location across the factory. Those results were promising.
“Ultimately, there was the blueprint to do everything completely electrically,” says project leader Bas Nigten. “On the other side we started with only a parking space. Then you can see from the start what is the most ideal to build. Here, at the current location, we are dealing with the existing exploitation.”
The company has been working on the preparations for about eight years. It is not easy to electrify for companies such as Scania. This is due to a crowded electricity grid, so that no new connections match. Now the factory has its own connection of approximately 2.3 kilometers through Meppel directly from and to the high-voltage station. “We have put a transformer installation on the site here,” says Nigten. “That way we are less dependent on the rest around us.”
There is a price tag on the entire project, according to Nigten it is millions. “You have to make a big investment to get electricity here alone, you will not get anything in return.” According to De Gilde, sustainability will eventually pay off due to the high gas prices. Although he emphasizes that this is not the reason that Scania is now switching to electricity.
Scania has several locations in the Netherlands, including in Meppel, Zwolle and Hasselt. In addition to making the processes more sustainable, the more sustainability of the vehicles is considered. The capacity of electric trucks is fully tested on the test track in Sweden.