Electricity Generation from Renewable Energy in Sri Lanka: Future Directions

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1. Introduction
Comprised of a total terrain of 65,610 square kilometers, Sri Lanka is home to a population of
20 million. Approximately 76% of the population lives in the rural areas where the main
occupation is agriculture.
Sri Lanka’s energy sources consist primarily of biomass, hydro-electricity and petroleum that
contribute to 47%, 8% and 45% of total energy respectively. In the power sector, the
installed capacity for electricity generation from hydro, thermal and wind power presently
stands at 2,407 MW, compared to 1,409 MW in 1999. 80% of the households are enjoying
the grid connected electricity while another 2% of households are provided with basic
electricity connection through off-grid systems. The demand for electricity is estimated to
rise at an annual pace of 8% - 10%. Per capita consumption of electricity meanwhile
reflected 394 kWh / person per annum in 2006.


2. National Energy Policy
The national energy policy envisages providing basic energy needs, ensuring energy security,
promoting energy efficiency, conservation and indigenous resources and adopting an
appropriate pricing policy. The government endeavours to reach a minimum level of 10% of
the gird electricity using non conventional renewable energy by 2015 and 6 % of the
households to use off-grid electricity systems by the year 2010.



3. Hydro Energy
Due to the geographical configuration having a rain fed central hill zone, Sri Lanka enjoys a
good hydropower potential. The country has used this resource for conveyance of irrigation
water for many millennia, and for electricity generation during the last two centuries. Early
days of grid electricity generation saw hydro as the major component in electricity generation,
accounting for more than 90% of the total generation. Recently, this component has been
reduced to 35% mainly due to the exponential load growth, which cannot be met by this
limited resource.



Renewable Energy as an Economic Opportunity
Renewable energy provides sound economic opportunities, especially for local enterprises.
This is due to the nature of all renewable energy resources, i.e. the occurrence within the
boundary of a country and the thin dispersion of the resource. Unlike petroleum and other
fossil fuel resources, which are confined within the boundaries of very few countries,
renewable energy occur almost in all countries, and is considered a very democratic resource.
The opposite is the oil resources, of which 60% of known resources are located within the
boundaries of three countries.