Decarbonisation of the electricity grid is a very large-scale endeavour.

This is no simple task.However, we know that the systematisation of methods, super-charged with developments in creative technologies, is a proven way to exponentially industrialise, as it has in the last 100 years.

Approaches which modularise process plants and utilities move construction techniques into mass production techniques.Building platforms move us away from bespoke design and delivery into repeatable, lean methods of construction.Approaches to standardisation and mass-customisation allow us to adapt solutions to the real world while protecting and massively improving productivity.

These approaches are already being explored and applied across sectors.. We also know that we can achieve industrialisation within the context of a cherished natural world if we have the intent and the imagination..So, curiosity led me to a degree of anxiety at the size of task which confronts us, while also giving me flickers of hope that we have done, and can do, extraordinary things.

We need that hope and the energy that curiosity brings to imagine and realise the solutions..

Professor John Dyson spent more than 25 years at GlaxoSmithKline, eventually ending his career as VP, Head of Capital Strategy and Design, where he focussed on developing a long-term strategic approach to asset management..This digital process will then feed all the way down through manufacturing, assembly automation and construction, with the ultimate benefits finding their way onto site..

Lean construction in practice: a virtuous circle of benefits.All of these factors combine to deliver cost and material savings, while using fewer people and increasing productivity.

We’re already seeing evidence that it’s possible to build a superstructure with half the number of people in half the time, representing a four-fold increase in productivity, as well as a 25% reduction in overall material and a 20% reduction in embodied carbon.And there are other benefits, such as the ability to minimise tolerances.