Environment friendly sources to produce electricity soon

by Uditha KUMARASINGHE

The Government is promoting the "Clean Green Energy" concept, another major policy initiative of the power sector to produce electricity with environmental friendly energy sources.

At present 7 percent of the total electricity is generated by Non-conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) sources such as wind, solar, biomass energy and mini-hydro power. The Government's aim is to increase it to 20 percent by 2020, a Government spokesman told the Sunday Observer.

He said at present there are 89 NCRE power projects with a total installed capacity of 211 MW linked to the national grid. As at end last year there were eight biomass projects (34MW), 82 mini-hydro projects (172 MW) and nine wind projects (85MW) under or at the planning stage while the Sustainable Energy Authority had issued provisional approvals for another 331 NCRE projects amounting to 938 Megawatts.

Energy efficiency improvement and energy conservation have received much attention in the recent past. Energy wastage is expected to drop by 20 percent in 2020.