With the climate crisis and the growing importance of energy security, investment in green power infrastructure is increasing. Solar energy is one of the most important renewable energy resources.
In 2021, solar energy, together with wind, accounted for 10.3% of worldwide electrical generation. In 2021, 168 Gigawatts (GW) of new photovoltaic capacity was installed, bringing total global solar energy capacity to above 1 Terawatt (TW), double its 2018 level. This figure is expected to more than double again by 2025 to 2.3 TW.
This article looks at building a solar power plant, how sunlight is turned into electricity, and the solar power business of Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group.
Building a solar power plant and how solar power works
The importance of safety at all stages of the construction process, from planning to completion, cannot be overstated. In making safety its top management goal for 2022, Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group leads the culture of safety at its construction sites. Consequently, it has reconfigured its organization, established and enforced safety policies, and introduced smart safety equipment.
Samsung C&T E&C’s safety efforts are spreading around the world, reaching, for example, Taiwan. This article looks at Samsung C&T’s efforts to raise safety awareness with the Safety Experience Center it has opened at the construction site of Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 3.
Safety Experience Center
Construction of Taiwan’s Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 3 began in 2021. Recently, Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group opened a new Safety Experience Center at the site to help heighten workers’ awareness of safety and to improve the work environment.
Local news media in Taiwan reported on this development, writing that Samsung C&T had invested TWD 10 million to bring virtual reality (VR) equipment onto the construction site of the airport terminal and open the Safety Experience Center. Here, workers can experience the different technologies actually used at construction sites and potentially risky situations that may occur in real life. This experience center is equipped with 10 realistic hands-on facilities such as the safety belt experience, electrical safety, equipment safety, protective equipment safety, and fire prevention.
Site workers who experienced the VR training agreed that it was very helpful, exclaiming that it was an amazingly realistic experience.
Building a new terminal for Taoyuan International Airport
The first terminal at Taiwan’s international airport was completed in 1979, and Terminal 2 was opened in 2010. The construction of a third terminal will expand the existing Taoyuan International Airport to solve the congestion problem caused by the growing number of travelers.
Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group is carrying out the construction of a passenger terminal and boarding concourse that can accommodate 45 million people annually on a site of about 550,000 square meters. The project, which started construction in 2021, is considered to be a very challenging construction project due to the large-scale steel truss and irregular ceiling configuration.
Improving worker safety awareness day by day
Up to 3,000 workers per day are working on the Taoyuan International Airport expansion site. Construction must be carried out taking into consideration the conditions of the already operating Terminals 1 and 2. In addition, since workers from various nations such as Vietnam and Thailand are working together, it is necessary to build up a consistent and high-level safety awareness and culture. Given these circumstances, Samsung C&T is working hard to develop a deep knowledge of safety within its workers through the Safety Experience Center, language lessons, and equipment training.
Officials from central and local governments in Taiwan, including the Deputy Minister for Transportation and Communications, also visited the Safety Experience Center and gave a high evaluation to the safety culture practiced by Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group.
Efforts to improve safety awareness of Samsung C&T
Samsung C&T Engineering & Construction Group hopes to receive a Golden Safety Award from the Ministry of Labor, given for construction safety management at the Taoyuan site in December. To this end, Samsung C&T has established a construction safety plan by designing for safety at the design stage and building information modeling simulation in the construction planning stage and is ensuring public safety as part of its optimal operation plan. In addition, the Group is doing its best to improve workers’ safety capabilities by executing a number of different training programs.
With safety as its top priority this year, Samsung C&T has established its own new construction safety research institute and expanded and reorganized its existing in-house safety organizations. Samsung C&T is also striving to raise the level of overall safety culture at construction sites, such as by introducing a virtual training program for equipment safety called SMAR’T.
