Construction headaches The question of construction methodology is equally pressing. Jamie outlines three broad approaches currently in use. Traditional stickbuilt construction – where a facility is assembled entirely on site – is largely obsolete.
Modular construction, using standardised prefabricated units, offers speed but limited flexibility, and Jamie is clear that it works best only under specific conditions.
The sweet spot, in his view, is prefabricated construction, where components are manufactured off-site and assembled on location. This reduces on-site labour, shortens timelines and allows late-stage configuration.
“ Most of the labour is attributable not to the site but to the factory where it’ s created,” Jamie notes.“ You’ re coming in at the commissioning stage and really connecting the pieces together – and it allows you to make changes closer to go-live than otherwise wouldn’ t be possible.”
Jean-Francois agrees that flexibility must be baked into every element of a facility’ s design. At GreenScale, every component is examined for how it might be reconfigured as technology evolves.
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