Combined solar system for Sri Lanka
View(s):Sri Lanka has over six million houses, with an average roof area of around 75,000 hectares, which could generate in excess of 160 GW of energy from roof-top solar.
“If we are being realistic and consider 1.5 per cent of that capacity, approximately 100,000 houses could generate over 2000MW of energy, which may well be the total energy demand of domestic and general consumer categories. The total investment required for the above deployment is around Rs. 435 billion,” according to Jeremy Fernando, an entrepreneur in the solar power industry.
“Our existing grid may not be able to handle such a large amount of solar energy exports, unless the process is well monitored and managed. In order to do so, mandatory Solar Self-Consumption technology and Automatic Meter Reading (AMR) should be deployed at each site. Also, Time of the Day (ToD) tariff structure should be imposed for all solar export consumers, in order to manage the loss of revenue due to energy usage during peak hours,” he said.
The current fuel bill of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) for generating power to meet the energy demand is approximately Rs. 2.5 billion per month. Therefore, the CEB is well positioned to fund this development and recover capital investment of the above project, within a period of 15 years, which is less than the contract period (20 years) of the Net Accounting system.
As the targeted consumer segment does not have the capacity to invest in the capital equipment, it is proposed that the solar system is leased to consumers without any lease rental charges. Instead, the consumers are expected to set off lease rental by selling energy to CEB/LECO, through a Net Accounting agreement, over a period of 5-8 years. Thereafter, the consumers will be free of energy cost or may even earn a substantial amount from their roof, he added.