Photo: Courtesy of Black & Veatch

The expansion of Indonesia’s Tanjung Jati B coal station reflects the continuing growth of coal projects in developing countries.

According to the International Energy Agency’s “World Energy Outlook 2010” report issued in November, worldwide electricity demand is expected to grow 2.2% per year through 2035, with more than 80% of the increase occurring in countries that are not members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

IEA predicts electricity demand in China to triple between 2008 and 2035; further, over the next 15 years alone, China is expected to add generating capacity equivalent to the current total installed capacity in the U.S. Globally, gross capacity additions to replace obsolete plants and keep pace with demand growth are expected to total 5.9 million MW by 2035, or about 160,000 MW per year, with more than 40% of that new capacity to be installed by 2020, IEA estimates.

However, most of the growth is expected to be outside of the U.S., sources say. “For sure, the real growth opportunities [in power] over the next five to 10 years are outside the U.S.,” says Dean Oskvig, president and CEO of Overland Park, Kan.-based Black & Veatch’s global energy business.

“We’re working primarily in places where we have a strong footprint,” including southern Asia and the Middle East, Oksvig says. For example, Black & Veatch is providing engineering, procurement and commissioning services for part of the two-unit, 1,320-MW expansion of the Tanjung Jati B coal station in Central Java, Indonesia. The firm is also providing engineering, procurement and construction services for Glow Energy Public Co. Ltd.’s 382-MW, natural-gas-fired combined-cycle/cogeneration project in Rayong, Thailand.

Englewood, Colo.-based CH2M Hill also sees real promise overseas. The company currently is competing for several planned fossil-fired power projects in Brazil and Australia and continues to help the United Arab Emirates plan the development of as many as 10 nuclear units, says Daniel Baublis, vice president of international operations for CH2M Hill’s power business group. Sitework already has begun on the UAE’s first four nuclear units, which are being built by a South Korean consortium that includes Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co. of Seoul, South Korea.

Coal-plant development also continues apace, especially in China and India but also in other industrializing countries. In a record-shattering deal announced in late October, Indian plant developer Reliance Power agreed to buy from Shanghai Electric the boilers and other equipment for 36 660-MW coal units. Reliance Chairman Anil Ambani told company shareholders one month before the deal was reached that Reliance plans to add more than 20,000 MW of coal-fired generating capacity in India by 2015.

Concern about a too-heavy dependence on coal and dramatic increases in worldwide natural-gas reserves are combining to spur development of scores of new gas-fired plants. “Australia is exporting coal [to China and other developing countries] and building gas-fired plants” at home, says Alan Champagne, CH2M Hill’s vice president of business development.

Furthermore, the renewables sector is strong internationally. “There’s a lot of activity in [the solar market] in Europe and the U.S. Southwest,” says Brad Freisen, vice president of the renewables business line at Fluor Corp., Irving, Texas. He says the focus on solar activity in Europe has been shifting, as Germany and Spain ramp down their incentives for solar projects while France and Italy fully implement their own.

“Longer-term, we will see a number of solar projects in the Middle East. India is also quite interested, as is China, although it’s hard for western companies to compete there,” Freisen says. Fluor also is building a $1.8-billion, 500-MW wind farm off the eastern coast of the U.K.