Aug 09, 2017 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s cabinet has given the go ahead to budget and establish panels to generate solar power on the roofs of all public institutions.
“I have already got the approval for this in the 2017 budget and under the ongoing ‘Surya Bala Sangramaya’ project, already the temples in the country are being transferred to solar,” Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, minister for power and renewable energy said.
“The project also targets to establish solar panels on the roofs of one million households and generate power and we are now encouraging the people towards this target.”
Minister was speaking at a ceremony in Kegalle.
He said that the first public institution to be powered by solar would be the St. Josephs Balika Vidyalaya, Kegalle.
Sri Lanka’s government last year launched the ‘Surya Bala Sangramaya’ that aims to add 220 megawatts of clean power to the country’s energy grid by 2020, or about 10 percent of the country’s current daily electricity demand.
Today about three percent of Sri Lanka’s energy demand is met by renewables such as wind and solar while hydro-power provides about half of the country’s electricity during the wet season but during the dry season, between August and October, 81 percent of the island’s power needs are met by fossil fuels, over half of that from coal.
Solar power has the potential to meet 32 percent of Sri Lanka’s annual power demand of around 10,500 gigawatts – but so far just 0.01 percent of that potential has been developed, according to the Sri Lanka energy sector development plan for 2016-2025.
Source – 09/08/2017, Lanka-business online, See more at – http://www.lankabusinessonline.com/sri-lankas-public-institutions-to-go-solar-minister/
