This approach – harnessing wide-ranging data, applying it creatively, iterating rapidly – can be applied in any number of other contexts, and we are currently working on several initiatives that need rapid implementation in the post-COVID world.

The virtual environment made it clear how a design detail or proposal would look, and fit, as you can see from the images.More importantly still, it showed all stakeholders how different systems and proposals would.

allowing many different solutions to be evaluated, so that the best one could be found.. Optimised energy use.Extensive environment modelling and energy analysis in the model was used to optimise energy use.Carried out by Bryden Wood’s CIBSE accredited Low Carbon Consultants, it encompassed all key variables, such as air flow, condensation levels, and heat sources.

The energy efficiencies achieved through different design iterations can be seen in the chart.. After testing in the virtual environment, Photovoltaic (PV) roof panels, and Combined Power and Heat Units (CHP), were identified as the most efficient energy solutions.CHPs deliver clean, low-carbon thermal and electrical energy, and were carefully sized to match the building’s electricity and hot water usage.

In Barnet Copthall, CHP alone reduced carbon emissions by 91.1 tonnes pa; and by 56.7 tonnes pa for Barnet Leisure Centre..

Intelligent air handling.Advanced heat solutions represent excellent complementary technologies to wind and solar power, as these renewables face real challenges.

For example, low density means that in order to harness enough energy to power the UK, we would need to build a solar farm of an impossibly large size.Renewables also have problems to do with dispatch power and consistency, as well as challenges with site locations.

Last summer, which was a still and cloudy one, wind and solar simply didn’t generate as much energy as we would have liked, and at this stage, all of the easiest, most suitable sites (the ones which may have access to transmission, and are very suited to wind and solar projects), have already been taken.. Interestingly, while energy systems modelling for wind and solar power often shows a hockey stick curve, as if the upward trajectory of deployment will continue undeterred, in actual fact, this isn’t the case.Over time, we find that the hockey stick turns into an S shaped curve instead.