At Bryden Wood we use data analytics to deliver best-in-class designs in many building sectors.
Furthermore, in countries with old coal, including the US, Canada and Europe, entire communities are economically reliant on the coal plants.Shutting them down would cause substantial unemployment and hardship.
In the United States alone there are 260 gigawatts of operating coal.Repowering the existing coal power plants using advanced heat sources presents a key political opportunity to garner bipartisan support for climate action in a way that maintains jobs, socio-economic benefits and tax revenues in those communities.. Another key point to consider is that the majority of the existing, global coal fleet is just fourteen years old, representing a trillion dollars of unrecovered capital.The prospect of the retirement of that fleet is highly unattractive for most of those owners and investors.
However, if we repower the existing coal power plants with advanced heat sources instead of shutting them down, the plants will likely run at a much higher capacity factor than they do today and at lower cost.This will make them even more profitable.
There will also be the potential to add other value driving services, such as atmospheric carbon removal, as well as hydrogen production with the cooling towers.
All of this work would turn these communities into clean energy hubs that will operate for decades to come..Conclusions for the industry.
Timber is a renewable material that has the potential to help decarbonise new buildings.However, should the industry move towards using more timber construction, local supply may not be able to meet demand leading to a less sustainable product..
The technical difficulties don’t eliminate the use of engineered timber but it’s clear there are many challenges that require more complex integration and technical knowledge than conventional construction systems..The application of timber is wide reaching from engineered timber solutions to simple uses of lumber in isolated instances.