The key point here is that we put a great deal of effort into defining the business needs.

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..The future of coal.

Post-pandemic, we find coal surging to its highest ever level.In the UK we still have two gigawatts of coal in operation, and because the global recovery is an energy intensive process, places like China, Asia and Africa are burning coal to stimulate economic recovery.

Of particular concern is the fact that we're currently expecting to see two terawatts of coal still in operation by mid-century, which would use up the entirety of our remaining carbon budget.

The urgency of the situation is heightened by the fact that current energy demand projections are likely incorrect, and don’t account for the vast increase in demand we’ll see as a result of the projected population increase of four billion people.. Coal is contributing not only to electricity generation, but to industrial emissions as well, and unfortunately, the reality is we don’t really know what trajectory we’re on with temperature increase and the climate emergency.The depth and breadth of value achieved is greater, the bigger and more complex the Chip.

The more co-dependent elements involved, the more variables and complexity the Chip has to resolve and the wider the implications of the ways in which Chips will optimise the design.So while an inpatient room is optimised for patient comfort and the facilitation of day to day care activities, an operating theatre has more complex variables to incorporate: medical procedures, heightened levels of infection control plus the associated surgical staff, flows of clean and dirty consumables, carefully controlled flows of air, extensive use of medical equipment and data etc..

The optimal design, which we call the Reference Design, can then be largely created by combining these Chips in the most efficient way.This Reference Design can then be built again and again as a fixed product, by clients who have control over site conditions, as per the MoJ Houseblocks..