The UK’s largest battery energy storage project has secured financial close with £200m of backing from the National Wealth Fund. The 2.8GW Thorpe Marsh facility is expected to power more than 785,000 homes and support the resilience of the renewable energy grid. Large-scale battery infrastructure is increasingly viewed as essential to sustainable building design, enabling energy-efficient buildings and reducing the carbon footprint of construction projects powered by renewable sources.
In Newport, Jones Bros will deliver one of the UK’s biggest sustainable energy parks, further embedding low carbon construction materials and practices into national infrastructure. These developments reinforce the role of life cycle thinking in construction, where grid stability and energy integration form part of whole life carbon assessment for buildings and urban developments.
Sir Robert McAlpine has been appointed to lead the Manchester Therme health spa project, which will showcase sustainable construction methods in high-profile leisure infrastructure. Developers are prioritising eco-friendly construction through low carbon design, with emphasis on embodied carbon in materials and building lifecycle performance. Low carbon building projects are becoming marketable assets, reflecting the growing demand for net zero whole life carbon outcomes across global construction.
In Bristol, Watkin Jones has secured permission for 322 student beds designed with sustainable building practices in mind. The project highlights rising pressure on urban developers to meet net zero carbon buildings requirements, balancing life cycle cost and circular economy strategies. Such schemes underline the potential of sustainable urban development to demonstrate measurable carbon footprint reduction while meeting modern housing needs.
Hydrogen innovation is advancing as Ecotricity invests in Clyde Hydrogen’s technology designed to make production cheaper and safer. This step could support decarbonising the built environment, particularly heavy machinery and transport linked to construction. Clean fuels integrated into eco-design for buildings and green infrastructure projects form an essential part of carbon neutral construction strategies.
The EU has adopted new rules targeting food and textile waste to strengthen the circular economy in construction supply chains. Textile offcuts and catering operations linked to building projects remain significant waste sources, making circular construction strategies and resource efficiency in construction vital to reducing whole life carbon. At the same time, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors has launched a global standard on responsible use of AI, ensuring lifecycle assessment and sustainable material specification are not compromised by the drive for efficiency. This reflects a broader commitment to environmental sustainability in construction and the use of technology without undermining sustainable building practices.
