5 January 2017 08:51 am
The inaugural ceremony of the national programme to transform all state sector buildings into renewable energy centres will be officially held under the patronage of Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake at the Finance Ministry next Monday (January 9).
A Finance Ministry statement said this programme would be promoted islandwide under President Maithripala Sirisena’s ‘Sustainable Development Initiative’ and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s ‘Economic Policy Statement’.
Budget 2017 allocated Rs.350 million for this project as initial funding.
Also, the government plans to provide financial assistance to households where their monthly electricity bill exceeds Rs.2000. Electricity consumers whose monthly bills exceed Rs.2000 will be able to transform their current source of energy into a renewable energy basis under this project.
The government will provide a bank loan of Rs.150,000 per household for this purpose and the government will bear 50 percent of interest for such loans on behalf of the borrowers.
Budget 2017 has allocated Rs.1.5 billion for this initiative.
Sri Lanka’s current power generation is around 4000 megawatts. However, the demand for energy is estimated to increase to 5300 megawatts by 2020 due to the ongoing rapid development projects in the country.