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ELMAR: A more sustainable future for quarries and mining

2022-09-27

Funded by the German government, the ELMAR project brings together a consortium of top-class research institutes and a diverse set of industry players ranging from material extraction companies to those developing software for optimizing material flows. As a part of the project, Volvo Group will be implementing a solution that includes electric Volvo trucks and construction equipment and TARA—the electric and autonomous transport solution for hauling.

Volvo TA15 - a fully autonomous electric hauler in a quarry

“With ELMAR we have the opportunity to combine Volvo Group’s broad portfolio of solutions to electrify and automate mining sites and make them more sustainable. This is the first known project in raw material extraction, which combines the production processes and resulting infrastructure for an electric fleet with the local production and storage of renewable energy. The switch to electric transport solutions requires a holistic approach and cooperation between the different players responsible for vehicles, infrastructure, energy supply and operations. ELMAR brings together these stakeholders and enables the co-creation commercially viable, sustainable transport solutions,” says Wolfgang Baur, Project Director, Volvo Group Trucks Technology.

“The mining and quarry industries are particularly suitable for autonomy because the flows are repetitive, the volume of material being moved is high and the environment is relatively uncomplex. Today the industry faces a number of sustainability and productivity challenges. With automation we can address these by downsizing the machines according to production targets without increasing labor costs. By making the machines smaller and lighter, it will also be possible to electrify them. Paired with renewable energy sources, autonomous and electric transports presents a great opportunity to reduce the industry’s CO₂ footprint” says Per-Johan Rosdahl, Head of Off-Road Solutions, Volvo Autonomous Solutions.

The ELMAR project runs from August 1, 2022 to July 31, 2025 on various sites in central Germany.

About Volvo Autonomous Solutions

The autonomous transport solution offered by Volvo Autonomous Solutions is based on Transport as a Service (TaaS) and includes a vehicle purpose-built for autonomous driving, a virtual driver, required infrastructure, operations and uptime support as well as a cloud solution that controls the transport system and manages logistics flows. The solutions developed by Volvo Autonomous Solutions are tailor-made for each customers’ needs and intended to make their operations more safe, productive and sustainable.

For further information, please contact:

Ceren Wende
Head of Marketing and Communication, Volvo Autonomous Solutions
Phone: + 46 31 322 4536
E-mail: ceren.wende@volvo.com