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| Sunday, 4 August 2002 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Renewable energy lights up rural areas by INDUNIL THENUWARA Pushpa Samarawickrama is a housewife from a remote village in Puttalam. Living in an area which was out of bounds for the national electricity supply, she and her school-going children had suffered immense difficulties. The kerosene bottle lamp was the sole means available to them as well as to everyone else in the village to dispel the darkness of the night. However, this had its problems, leading to many an accident as well as the villagers having to spend quite a large amount of money on kerosene. The batteries which powered their radio and television sets also burnt holes in their pockets. The introduction of solar power to the area has now lighted up the lives of many villagers including Samarawickrama and her family. "Solar power has changed everything for us. My children can now study late into the night while there are no worries about bottle lamp accidents. Most of the villagers are involved in self-employment projects such as farming, livestock and sewing. Earlier we could not work after 6.00pm as it was too dark, but now we can continue our work till late. What is more, this also drives away the wild elephants who used to roam at night. We have sunlight whether it is day or night," she told the launch of the Renewable Energy for Rural Economic Development (RERED) project held in Colombo recently. Samarawickrama is one of the people who have benefited from solar electricity through the Energy Services Delivery (ESD) project credit programme which will now be succeeded by the RERED. The ESD project, which was operational from 1997 to 2002, was assisted by a US$ 19.7 million line of credit from the International Development Association (IDA) and a US$ 3.8 million grant from the Global Environment Facility (GEF). As a result of this project, a dramatic increase could be seen in the development of grid-connected and off-grid renewable energy projects prepared and implemented by the private sector and village communities. RERED, the new project of the Sri Lankan Government, which has 'Electricity for Villages' (Gamata Light) as its mission, is also assisted by the World Bank through IDA and GEF. The total investment for the project, estimated to be US$ 133 million, includes an IDA credit of US$ 75 million and a GEF grant of US$ 8 million. Executing agency Brad Herbert, Operations Adviser of the World Bank Mission in Colombo, said the project would be based on three pillars - determining the role of the State in the project, supporting public private partnerships, and involving communities. "Sri Lanka has seen one of the most successful projects in the World Bank portfolio. Many companies are now involved in this," he said. The Ministry of Finance will be the executing agency for the project, of which the development and management will come under the Administrative Unit set up at the DFCC Bank. This unit will work closely with the World Bank, government and non-governmental organisations, Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), private sector project developers, participating credit institutions (PCIs), suppliers, consultants, industry associations and village co-operative societies on setting up these projects. Besides the six PCIs which took part in the ESD project - DFCC Bank, National Development Bank, Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank, Sampath Bank and Sarvodaya Economic Enterprises Development Services (SEEDS) - several other financial institutions have expressed interest in participating in the RERED project. Addressing the forum, Saliya Ranasinghe of SEEDS said that SEEDS is the first micro-finance credit institution accepted as a PCI for a project of this nature. "We incorporate three types of projects under this scheme - grid-connected mini hydro projects which are commercial initiatives executed by private sector developers to sell the energy generated to the CEB; off-grid village hydro projects operated by village communities; and solar power projects. We believe that this project is important as the rural economy is the backbone of a country and future economic development depends on this sector," he said. The RERED project will foster rural economic development and improve the quality of life of the people through access to electricity while expanding the commercial provision and use of electricity generated from renewable resources. It will support the island's vision of expanding rural electricity access to at least 75 per cent of the population by 2007. It will build further on the demand-driven market-based approach initiated by the ESD project and the collective capabilities of the stakeholders. Eco-friendly technologies The RERED project envisages electricity access to 100,000 remote households and 1,000 rural small and medium enterprises and public institutions through off-grid community-based and household-based projects utilising technologies such as hydro, wind, biomass and solar. It expects to add 85MW to the grid through environmental friendly technologies. Under the ESD project, 18,619 solar home systems had been installed by end-June, with an aggregate capacity of about 875 kW. Solar systems have been installed in 24 districts with the largest number, 7,138, being in the Uva Province. Fifty six off-grid village hydro projects with an aggregate capacity of 574 kW benefiting 2,900 homes have been commissioned or were under construction by June. Fifteen grid-connected mini hydro projects assisted by the ESD project generating 31MW had also been commissioned or were under construction by June. All these projects were implemented under a standardised small power purchase agreement and tariff introduced by the ESD project. Gunapala Marasinghe, chairman of a village hydro power scheme in Kegalle, told the forum that people have a right to get services such as electricity, health and education from the government. "We decided to implement this power project on our own. "We have done something which should have been done by the government. Such initiatives should receive State support, but we actually faced several problems due to delays in government organisations. This needs to be addressed by the authorities," he said. |
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