Sri Lanka's Rooftop Solar Power Generation Exceeds 750 Megawatts

Rooftop solar power generation in Sri Lanka has exceeded 750 megawatts by the middle of February 2024, said the state-owned electricity producer and distributor Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) on Wednesday

COLOMBO, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Feb, 2024) Rooftop solar power generation in Sri Lanka has exceeded 750 megawatts by the middle of February 2024, said the state-owned electricity producer and distributor Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) on Wednesday.

Commenting on the progress made by the South Asian nation on renewable energy generation, CEB spokesman Noel Priyantha told the media that Sri Lanka has great potential in solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy.

Sri Lanka has around 7 million buildings, but only 50,000 of them have installed rooftop solar systems, and there is a great potential to increase rooftop solar power generation exponentially, he said.

The CEB now buys a unit of electricity from rooftop solar power producers for 37 rupees (about 0.

12 U.S. dollars), and these producers can recover their initial costs in five years, Priyantha said.

The CEB is also talking to state-owned banks to introduce a concessional bank loan for those interested in installing rooftop solar power units, he said.

The Sri Lankan government has set a goal of achieving 70 percent renewable energy generation by 2030 and becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, as the government earlier announced.

The total installed capacity of the national power grid is over 5,000 megawatts, and the daily energy consumption in February 2024 is about 46 gigawatts per day, Priyantha said.