Skip to content

100% Renewable Sri Lanka

Cut emissions by 55%+ in 10 years, COP 25 conference in Spain has given a clear message. Otherwise the life as we know it will cease to exist.

There has been too much talk about climate change, but not enough action. Even Sri Lanka have prolonged doing anything about it, because of the excuse that either we don’t believe in renewables, stagnated with old fashioned thinking, outdated technology or simply the personal gains of energy business.

Mark Jacobson, a professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Director of the Atmosphere/Energy Program at Stanford University, and his research colleagues have designed a way out for changes to be made around the world.

And here it is for Sri Lanka according to Stanford, although local energy experts projected better.

As said local experts plotted 100% RE plans better, knowing the ground realities. Stanford may have not analyzed the existing renewable potential of Hydro, which will enable us to be 100% RE well in advance. Also the potential of Solar is much higher.

Finally, the most important aspect of this plan is living in general. You may refer to www.thesolutionsproject.org to know more.

Sri Lanka

It’s time for the consciousness of our energy policy makers and engineers to awaken to the fact that we must come together on this issue.

President has announced meeting with 80% renewable energy by 2030, so we have no long way ahead from there. If these changes are not made then the Earth is going to shake us off and start over.

Costs

Energy specialist Mr. Vidhura Ralapanawe brings some important facts on the costs against the local energy engineers and the Electricity Board who push for Coal and Fuel predominately on costs.

” Existing coal plant is around 18 per unit (and a new plant will be 21+ by the time it is built). Remember – coal was promised at 3.50 in the beginning. With Rupee depreciation of 4% per annum, costs from coal power will increase by approx 1 Rupee per year.

The reason why we have expensive power is
1) High oil use
2) increasing costs of coal

Renewables are the cheapest – our small scale tenders (10-20MW) give around 12 Rupees (no escalation due to currency). If we tender at scale (100MW) it is cheaper – CEB’s 100MW wind plant is about 8 Rupees a unit. Globally, utilities reduce costs of electricity by introducing solar (see Australia).

The last tender floated in India for dispatchable solar+storage (1.2GW) came with a price of US cents 5 per unit. Way less than even the coal costs in Sri Lanka.”

As for external costs not all costs from fossil fuels are the same, Mr. Ralapanawe explains.

Going 100% RE is all about learning, changing attitudes and ethics the world has proven.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *