Sri Lanka, with ample natural resources, can achieve the renewable energy target of meeting 70 percent of the country’s energy needs from renewable energy sources by 2030, said a top official of Access Solar (Pvt) Ltd.
“We are amply blessed with sun, rain and wind which should be harnessed for generating energy,” said Access Solar General Manager Upul Dissanayake on the sidelines of the celebration to mark Access Solar’s 25 years in the industry and the launch of its latest solar energy storage technology in Colombo on Tuesday.
“Every citizen of the country and the industry must look at the renewable energy target positively and make a contribution to achieve it,” Dissanayake said.
On how would the new lithium ion battery help solve the storage issue in the solar power sector, he said, “Not having a battery storage solution was a major issue that affected grid stabilisation. The battery storage issue arose because there was no solution to address the peak time storage problem in the country.”
Dissanayake said the battery that will be introduced by Access Solar will help to solve the energy storage issue in the country to a great extent.
Elaborating the energy storage issue he said what has been happening so far is that solar energy which is absorbed during the day time is released to the grid at the same time without a facility to store the energy.
Going forward he said the Government must focus on the return on investment on solar battery installations and support the industry with the infrastructure.
However, solar industry officials were perturbed over the move by the Government to slash the feed-in tariff which disincentivives solar energy production. Industry personal said reduction of the tariff to producers will put the jobs of over 40,000 workers in the solar power industry at stake.
National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL), Vice Chairman Dr. Lakmal Fernando said the renewable energy sector will not survive if such ad hoc policy decisions are made disregarding the concerns of the industry.
“Achieving the target of meeting 70 percent of the country’s energy needs through renewable sources will not be possible if the policies do not support renewable energy developers,” industry officials said.
The renewable energy sector unlike the thermal power sector which relies on imports draining colossal amounts of foreign exchange from the country, is a 100 percent local industry.
Access Solar expects a higher tariff for a battery storage solution from the Government during peak hours.
“The new battery will be break even for households but for the industry and commercial operations it will be cost effective,” Dissanyake said elaborating on the benefits of the technology which has a capacity to store from 5kWh to GWhs.
Access Solar (Pvt) Ltd partnered JinkoSolar Holding Co. Ltd, a solar module manufacturer in China for the solar energy storage solution.
