Sri Lanka has made tremendous progress with regard to achieving renewable energy targets ahead of schedule, said Prof. Asanka Rodrigo of the Department of Electrical Engineering University of Moratuwa, at an event hosted by E.B. Creasy Solar to mark the company being appointed as the authorised distributor for LONGi, a global leader in solar technology from China .
He said that this was especially evident in rooftop solar PV, ground mounted solar PV, floating solar PV segments.
He said that Sri Lanka had run out of options of adding more hydro power plants due to geographical reasons and running out of new resources. “Due to this Sri Lanka opted to move to solar and other energy sources in 2009 grid connected and this move was a very successful initiative.”
In the earlier stages there was a target set to achieve 200 megawatts (MW) to add to the national grid before 2020 and this was achieved in 2019 May.”
In addition a target was set to achieve 1 Giga Watt (1000MW) of solar by 2025 and the country was able to reach this target by July this year.
The country had set a target to achieve 70% of power via renewable energy by 2030 and Sri Lanka is on course to reach this as well.
The solar energy generating target towards this goal is 4,000 MW and the country is annually getting 1,000 MW each year making this too a reality.
He also suggested that solar systems should operate under Net metering and Net Accounting schemes at Low Voltage side.
