First Floating Solar Power System will be established near Diyawanna Lake

Power Minister Dullas Alahapperuma said in Parliament yesterday that steps will be taken to establish the first Floating Solar Power System near Diyawanna Lake. He was responding to Parliamentarian Chaminda Wijesiri. The Minister said that solar panels would be installed on roofs of Government Offices to generate electricity. Minister Alahapperuma also said that a project worth USD 100 million is being implemented under the Indian Loan Scheme and 80 per cent of it will be allocated for the Project. The Minister said that solutions should be found to the problems through renewable energy and that the Government led by the President has paid special attention in this regard.

Update:

India funds Sri Lanka’s first floating solar plant to power Parliament

A floating solar power plant with a capacity of 1.5 MW is to be built in Diyawanna Oya to meet the daily electricity requirement of Parliament. This will be constructed with a loan from the Government of India.

This will be the first project under a programme to build floating solar systems, according to Minister of Power Dullas Alahapperuma.

Minister Dullas Alahapperuma emphasizes that the construction of the floating solar power plant in Diyawanna will be carried out at the earliest and that Parliament will set a precedent for the entire country regarding the concept of floating solar power plants.

The programme will be carried out jointly by the Ministry of Power and Energy, the State Ministry of Solar, Wind and Hydro Generation Projects Development, the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), the Mahaweli Authority and the Sustainable Energy Authority. Already several reservoirs and tanks have been identified for the second phase of this innovative project concept.

The CEB is to conduct feasibility studies focusing on the relevant reservoirs and will select the maximum capacity reservoirs. It has been suggested that the minimum capacity should be 100 MW.

The Power Ministry has initiated a number of renewable energy projects covering the entire island to provide uninterrupted, quality and affordable sustainable electricity services to electricity consumers, for achieving the objective of increasing the renewable energy contribution to the power sector to 70% by 2030.