22 May 2020 12:00 am
By Sandun A Jayasekera
The largest wind power generation plant in Sri Lanka with an installed capacity of 103 MWs was ready for commissioning in September this year, Minister of Power and Energy Minister Mahinda Amaraweera informed the cabinet on Wednesday.
“The construction of the power plant at Mannar Point in Northern Sri Lanka at a cost of Rs.25 billion is nearing completion and there is ample space for further expansion of the project,” he added.
Minister Amaraweera said the minimum rotation velocity of a wind turbine or wind energy converter is 7.5 km per hour and the current conditions at Mannar Point, is conducive to achieve double the capacity. Therefore, I informed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa that there is more space at Mannar Point to expand the wind power plant. However, intelligence reports pointed out that certain politicians with extremist ideologies in the North appear to be unhappy about the project and it is possible that they would incite the public to protest against a move to expand the plant, Minister Amaraweera said.
“President Rajapaksa instructed me to go ahead with the expansion and said Sri Lanka had only one law which applies to the entire country and there is no law now exclusively used for Mannar or to the North East as in the past,” Minister Amaraweera noted.
President Rajapaksa’s plan is to increase renewable energy to 80% of the total capacity of power generation by 2030 and as such, the Mannar Point wind power plant would be a big boost to reach that target, Minister Amaraweera stressed.