Design to Value: Shaping a Better Built Environment | Martin Wood

Embodied and operational carbon increase in a decarbonised grid scenario.

Existing coal-fired power plants have enormous value in terms of established markets for their power, grid connections, access to cooling water and experienced personnel necessary for the generation and distribution of power..But even though coal plants themselves are the largest single source of carbon, they can also act as flexible generators, complementing renewables in support of delivering reliable, affordable and resilient electricity grids..

Installing advanced heat sources, such as small modular reactors (SMRs), to replace the coal-fired boilers at existing coal plants will enable the continued use of existing infrastructure for emissions-free electricity generation.. Repurposing coal offers a fast, low-risk, large-scale contribution to decarbonising the world’s power generation as we move into the future..Together with Terra Praxis, other specialists and key stakeholders, we are developing a solution that will contribute to creating a huge market for rapid, low-cost repurposing of coal and gas plants with carbon-free advanced heat sources, while delivering a substantial portion of the clean electricity required to help achieve Net Zero by 2050..Traditional Approaches won’t work – a platform (P-DfMA) approach will.

If we use traditional approaches to design, procure and build nuclear plants at the scale we need to get the required level of carbon emission reductions, we simply will fail:.It would be too costly to be attractive to utilities companies and plant owners.

It would be too risky because of the typical levels of cost uncertainty in nuclear projects.

It would take too long and be too disruptive to do the required refurbishments.This project can generate more benefit by remaining open and accessible to a range of collaborators.

Nor is our aim to start from scratch or reinvent the wheel - we are using the data that is already created through the use of BIM, and existing formats for sharing it..The planning process in the UK touches all of our lives.

It is integral to the way in which the built environment develops around us; affecting where we live, where we work, where we eat, shop and play, how we walk, cycle and drive, how we produce, manufacture, generate, store, dispose and recycle.And yet the system we use has not changed since the 1940s.