REPOWER - pioneering clean energy transformation

REPOWER is a strategy that aims to end our reliance on fossil fuels and to provide cheap, clean, reliable, safe energy at scale globally. It’s led by Terra Praxis, a non-profit climate solution accelerator, and the global REPOWER Consortium which includes Bryden Wood, Microsoft, MIT, Schneider Electric, and various SMR (Small Modular Reactor) developers, among others.

REPOWER harnesses the power of emissions-free advanced heat sources, such as nuclear fission and fusion, to decarbonise the largest sources of global carbon emissions (coal, industry, heavy transport) at the speed and scale required to achieve Net Zero by 2050.

Together with Terra Praxis, we have developed a model that demonstrates how schedule and cost risks can be “designed out” – it is a model for the industry to adopt and adapt. This approach is pivotal in enabling the broader industry to implement these transformative solutions.

We’re working to develop a safe, fast, low-cost, and repeatable solution to repurpose both existing energy infrastructure such as coal plants, or to build new energy supply to meet the ever-growing demand from commercial and industrial energy users. Repurposing coal plants will eliminate a third of global carbon emissions while ensuring sustained economies. This initiative is a significant step towards a more sustainable and economically viable future.

Bryden Wood’s role is to develop a versatile deployment system suitable for a range of advanced heat source technologies coming to the market. This means designing a standardised solution that can be approved at scale, mass-produced, and deployed across multiple sites and geographies simultaneously. 

The core concept is the ‘cocoon’ which is currently being designed to accommodate various advanced heat sources, and which protects and isolates all the complexity of the technology contained inside it. The ‘cocoon’ will be housed in a standardised outer building and served with standardised supporting systems and distribution systems. All of these products will be designed in such a way that they can be manufactured and assembled easily, and are common across a wide-range of applications – creating much bigger economies of scale, more attractive manufacturing opportunities, and unlocking supply-chain capacity.

These standardised products also enable standardisation and automation of all typical project processes. For example, configurators can be used to rapidly accelerate the site feasibility and detailed design process, with designs based on standard components and rules, while pre-approved products manufactured in controlled environments and then assembled in pre-approved configurations make approval from regulatory authorities at scale and speed a reality.

Together, this is what we call the ‘Platform approach to Design for Manufacture and Assembly’ (P-DfMA), and we believe it is integral to achieving our global climate goals. 

REPOWER presents the opportunity to make advanced heat sources highly attractive in terms of cost, time, and risk, attracting more customers and suppliers, creating significant opportunities, and building a new global market of emission-free energy technologies and productised building systems. 

Encouraging a competitive market of advanced heat sources to emerge alongside a P-DfMA deployment model could achieve the scale of transformation we need to meet the 2050 deadline.

Find out more about REPOWER here.