CU1803

INDUSTRY focus
It's all change
David Chadwick speaks to Colin Beaney of IFS about the role of information management in future
infrastructure planning
Ihad an interesting chat with Colin
Beaney of IFS recently, where we
discussed some of the issues that
are set to change the way we do things,
and how the construction industry must
start planning for a vastly different
future - in particular those parts of it
dealing with infrastructure, which is
Colin's speciality at IFS.
Being still in the grips of a particularly
foul winter at the time, we spoke first
about the growth of renewable energy
sources, to cover current needs and
the prospect of dramatically increasing
demand in the future. Wind generated
electricity and solar panel arrays are
coming on line in a substantial way, but
the intention to phase out carbon based
vehicles In the near future will place
additional burdens on electricity
supplies. But we get ahead of ourselves.
Colin started by winding me up - telling
me that his house basks in an average
temperature of 22 degrees, year round,
for a fraction of the amount I currently
pay EDF. He explained that his house is
heated by ground source heating - the
drilling of a couple of 80m holes through
which water is pumped, raising
temperatures gradually by a few degrees,
reversing refrigeration principles.
An efficient use of energy, but he
compounded this by describing the
advances in battery technology which
some energy companies see as off-peak
power sources, based on the assumption
that an all-electric car environment will
have huge energy resources sitting in
driveways, fully charged, overnight. The
energy companies are looking into ways
that they could dip into these batteries,
without affecting your ability to drive
away, fully charged again, in the morning.
More efficient and cheaper batteries
with greater storage capabilities will
encourage the democratisation of
electricity, with those able to produce
and store it benefitting from sharing it
with other users.
The problem with that, explained Colin,
is that although we have improved our
ability to generate electricity from
different renewable resources, we lack
the means to distribute it effectively. We
are witnessing the phasing out of carbon
technology - diesel first of all, followed
by petrol - with the aim of producing allelectric
road transport within the next two
decades. That will hike up the demand
for electricity, and force us to rationalise
its availability for all.
We concurred that Petrol stations will
probably disappear, to be replaced by
charging facilities within supermarket
car parks, at workplaces and kerbsides,
mimicking the old, single vehicle
parking meters. The development of
driverless vehicles, car sharing
schemes and greater reliance on public
transport will have an impact on
electricity requirements, but that will be
cancelled out by another unique and
weird phenomenon that's currently
causing huge problems because of its
massive power requirements, namely
data mining.
Data mining and the creation of digital
currency systems rely on massive
computer permutations to process the
huge calculations that underlie the
unique access codes required to
process the coinage, each transaction
requiring the sharing of information
24
March/April 2018