with provision for heat export suitable for connection to district heating or industrial processes where viable.. We are also working with data centre clients on alternative sources of clean energy; an area where we see significant potential for data centres to become autonomous, and to promote the use of cleaner standby power systems.. A positive future for data centre design.

This includes SMEs with new approaches, technologies and kit developed to support the manufacture of products set to become part of these platform (P-DfMA) systems.The Hub is also working with the companies who will actually be onsite, and who understand how these systems work and effectively integrate in order to facilitate delivery of the built environment itself.. Then there are the companies working in areas like MEP and facades.

In some respects they’re the easy ones, because many of them are already manufacturing products.They’re familiar with manufacturing processes and, in some cases, are already supplying other industries and familiar with other mindsets and cultures.They’ll easily adapt to this future delivery model.. As the SMEs grow and invest in their capabilities, we’ll see more drive from that supply chain side because of the confidence they’ll have in the pipeline, and the opportunity to be secure in that investment.

However, one challenge we do face is that SMEs can be hard to reach because they’re often so busy doing their jobs that they don’t necessarily have time to look at these bigger changes.One reason government funding and R&D programmes are so important is because these things enable a de-risked environment whereby SMEs can work and learn the evolving operating and delivery systems..

TIP 2: Will there be a future mandate?.

One of the most intriguing parts of Transforming Infrastructure Performance: Roadmap to 2030, is the potential for a government mandate within the next couple of years.Once we achieve that, we’ll create a domino effect that unlocks other elements..

The good news is that we’re starting to see a lot of interest in these types of strategies from governments, policy makers, investors, other NGOs and customers.For example, airlines have shown significant interest in the prospect of having clean, drop-in, substitute fuels that are comparable in price and performance to existing fuels.

That’s not something which is on offer to them in the current conversation around sustainable fuel..Likewise, the oil industry and oil producing nations are coming to a point where they’re having to seriously begin thinking about their transition strategies.