Research on Power Plant Construction in Developing Countries

¶ … Infrastructure Projects

Examining Power Infrastructure Projects

With natural gas and oil resources dwindling and the greenhouse gas threat continues to grow, it will be crucial to examine alternatives for cleaner power. The project will explore two different categories of infrastructure projects, including the construction of water power plants and solar plants. The two projects will be from developing nations in order to help expose potential for changes for future projects. The hydroelectricity plant to be examined is the Brantas River Basin Development Project in Indonesia, while the solar plant is the Ourzazate Solar Power Station project in Morocco. Ultimately, this will help this current research explore the strengths and weaknesses of both in order to provide recommendations not just for projects here in the United States, but also around the world that help strengthen growing economies.

Integrated power production construction projects are enormous endeavors and are quite complicated. There are a number of essential tasks necessary before even beginning project implementation, and the job only continues to get more and more complicated as construction actually begins to break ground. For the purpose of this current research, the power plant project to be evaluated is the Brantas River Basin Development Project in Indonesia. It was comprised of an "integrated system composed of power plants, irrigation, flood control, water supply etc., which have been constructed since the 1960s" (Shimomura, 2011). This project represents a massive and long-term project that has continued to unveil power elements over the last few decades. It relied on long-term investment and participation in a successful strategy of slow and continuous integration to continue to strive for better optimization. With hydroelectric power being the primary need for the project, it can help provide insight and examples of what to avoid when engineering power constructions outside of natural gas and oil in developing nations with less resources than countries like the United States. Examining the project will highlight its successes which can be replicated in the future, as well as lessons learned to avoid potholes for pending projects to avoid.

This can ultimately be compared to the introduction of another power project in a developing nation, solar power. The sun has an unlimited amount of energy, which is proving to be one of the cleanest and fastest growing power production industries. It is clean and much less invasive than most hydroelectric power projects, like the one implemented in Indonesia. Here, the Ourzazate Solar Power Station project in Morocco will be examined. The project was completed quite quickly, especially compared to the hydroelectric plant which took over thirty years. This solar plant is still undergoing developments, but has used some of the most innovative solar energy technology on the market. This project will be evaluated in regards to how its construction has stayed on track and what can be adjusted in order to provide more successful implementations in future solar projects. In depth review of project spending, construction, and the output of the finished project will be compared to the much longer and more invasive hydroelectric project.