The TREE project addresses the societal challenge of effectively transitioning to electrified heavy road transport. TREE focuses on the forest industry, which accounts for 20% of Sweden’s heavy road transport.
The TREE transition to electrified vehicles in the forest sector would have a significant impact on the reduction of Sweden’s CO2emissions, while results and knowledge will be transferable to other industries. To switch to fossil-free transport, a system transition is needed, where we together develop business models, logistics planning and technology.
The overall goal of the TREE project is to contribute to 50% of the forestry’s new trucks being electrified by 2030. To achieve this, a system demonstrator is planned to be spread over seven sites. The system demonstrator will include innovative technical solutions, business models adapted for electrified transport, and testing of planning strategies and tools. The project will also build knowledge about the impact of policies and external factors, as well as develop an industry-wide roadmap for transition.
The Forestry Research Institute of Sweden, the joint research institute for forestry, is the coordinator of the project together with the network organisation CLOSER at Lindholmen Science Park. An additional 20 partners are involved in the project, including forest companies, logistics companies, hauliers, charging companies, technology companies, and universities.
The TREE project runs 2023-11-20–2026-11-19 with support from the R&D program FFI (Strategic Vehicle Research and Innovation) at Vinnova.
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That’s a remarkable amount of work hours for a single machine, the Norcar 600 owned by Erkki Rinne is taken well care of, it even has the original Diesel engine.
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Kieran Anders is a forestry contractor working in the lake district. His work involves hand cutting and extracting timber using a skidder and tractor-trailer forwarder.
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It is not possible to eliminate chain shot, but there are simple steps that can be taken to reduce the risk.
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Arwel takes great pride in the fact that the mill has no waste whatsoever, “the peelings are used for children’s playgrounds, gardens and for farm animals in barns in the winter and the sawdust has multiple uses in gardens and farms as well.
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Timber hauliers need to encourage young blood in, and also look after the hauliers we have, we need make the sector a safe and positive place to work.
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Vision, purpose and goals
Vision
Efficient, electrified forest transport that is part of the green transition.
Purpose
Accelerate the electrification of forestry road transport by removing system barriers.
Overall objectives
Contribute to 50% of forestry’s new trucks being electrified by 2030. Electrification of 50% of truck transport equals reduced CO2emissions of approximately 260,000 tonnes per year.
Project objectives
- Iterative demonstration and evaluation of logistics solution with electrified vehicles.
- Knowledge of the design and choice of location for charging stations and the role of mobile energy hubs in the system.
- Verified insights into the strengths and weaknesses of different logistics and transport planning strategies.
- Developed business models, which are co-created in the value chain
- Create overall system understanding.
- Accelerate the transformation to electrified transportation beyond project partners.
Implementation: system demonstrator with sites as a hub for knowledge building
To succeed with the electrification of heavy transport, both smaller and larger technical solutions are required, and changes in business models, organization and behavior, infrastructure, and regulations and policies are realized. These need to be put together like the pieces of a puzzle. The project will realize solutions and changes in a comprehensive system demonstration, which will be distributed in seven different locations. The solutions demonstrated include electric timber and wood chip trucks, electric HCT vehicles, mobile energy hubs, e-trailer, and advanced route planning. The sites will be hubs for knowledge building, research and innovation in vehicle technology innovation, electricity and charging, transport planning, business models, and system understanding. Based on the knowledge in the project, a roadmap for the conversion of forestry transport will be developed and communicated.
Iterative approach for knowledge transfer and flexibility
The project will have an iterative approach, where knowledge is continuously collected from the system demonstrator, new solutions are developed, and increasingly complex functions and solutions are demonstrated.
Knowledge dissemination is an important part of the project, and a TREE conference that is open to participation will be held annually where knowledge is shared with actors outside the project as well.
Actors and partners
The transition to electric forest transport is very much a system change, and a key to the success of the project is the broad collaboration between actors. The project includes actors representing different roles in the value chain. The project’s partners are spread across the country, which means that we can capture variations between different parts of the country.
The project includes:
- Skogforsk
- Scania
- Stora Enso
- Sveaskog
- Southern
- SCA
- Holmen
- Closer
- LBC Freight Värmland
- Dalafrakt
- Timber Logistics Central Sweden
- VSV Unite
- Alltransport Östergötland
- OP Höglunds
- The charging company
- Nimbnet
- Zelk Energy
- bev_r
- Biometrics
- Linköping University
- KTH
Forest Machine Magazine is written and edited by a forest professional with over 40 years hands on experience. We are dedicated to keeping you informed with all the latest news, views and reviews from our industry.
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