Sri Lanka can produce its entire requirement of power through renewable sources
View(s):This is good news for all electricity consumers. There is a major shift in the country to renewable energy from wind power and solar power from fossil fuel and in the process a strong possibility of bringing the present high prices of electricity to one third its present price.
This was stated to the Business Times by Ranil Pathirana, Chairman Windforce Ltd on the sidelines of a media briefing to announce an Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Colombo last week. The IPO aims to raise Rs. 3.24 billion to fund the company’s strategic expansion and growth in the renewable energy sector.
Mr. Pathirana said that the high cost of electricity in the country is due to the extensive use of fossil fuel. Thermal power in the country costs around Rs. 45 per kilowatt hour whereas to produce renewable energy it costs only Rs. 10 while the cost difference is massive. He said that by using renewable energy, the cost will come down significantly adding that Windforce is the largest supplier of renewable energy in the country and in addition to that they are establishing renewable energy projects in other countries.
He said that compared to the large projects undertaken by their company, the Chinese government-project which envisages to establish renewable energy in one of the islands near Jaffna, is a small one. He assured that his company and several other local companies involved in producing renewable energy can definitely handle the entire supply of electricity in Sri Lanka through renewable energy.
He said at the moment the country is buying 200MW of additional power and for the last four years there were no big power plants added to the national system. Now every year the country needs around 300 MW and there are quite a number of
Sri Lankan companies who could supply this need through renewable energy.
Depending on the size of the power plant, he said if the plant is large, around three years would be needed to build it. However the plant sizes that they are building would take around one year. He indicated that the electricity prices in the country would drastically come down with increased use of renewable energy.
The IPO offers 2.02 billion ordinary shares at Rs. 16 per share. Windforce has been issued the highest credit rating by ICRA Lanka given to a corporate in Sri Lanka. The subscriptions open on March 24.
The company plans to allocate a sum of Rs. 2.3 billion as the equity investment for a wind power project in Mannar and a solar power project in Senegal and the balance would be utilised for future projects. They are also involved in several small hydro power projects in the country and overseas.
Manjula Perera, Managing Director of Windforce said at the media briefing that the company was incorporated in 2010 to promote and handle all aspects of renewable energy development. It is the pioneer in the wind power generation in Sri Lanka and one of the first players in the solar power generation in the country. He said that over the years through its investments in the renewable energy space the company has transformed to become the largest IPP (Independent Power Producer) in the renewable energy sector in Sri Lanka and has expanded operations globally becoming the first Sri Lankan company to set up solar plants in Uganda, Pakistan and Ukraine.
He indicated that overall the company currently operates 27 power plants with an installed capacity of 218 MW with 55 per cent of the capacity – 120.8 MW based in Sri Lanka while the rest is based in the other three countries. (QP)