Sri Lankan Venture Capital Firm Invests in Wind Power. 10MW Wind Power Plant to be Set up in Kalpitiya Peninsula

28th March 2011, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lankan venture capital Lanka Ventures said it will invest 384 million rupees through a subsidiary to set up a wind power plant on the island's north-west coast.

A stock exchange filing said LVL Energy Fund (LEF), a fully-owned subsidiary of Lanka Ventures, has signed a deal with LTL Holdings to set up a 10MW wind power generation plant in the Kalpitiya peninsula.

LEF will invest 384 million rupees for an equity stake of 40 percent in the project company named Pawan Danavi, it said.

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Sri Lanka Non Conventional Renewable Energy Contribution to the National Grid was 6.8pct in 2010 with New Projects

22nd February 2011, www.dailynews.lk, Harshini Perera

The contribution of non-conventional renewable energy sources to the national grid has increased to 6.8 percent last year. This was 5.5 percent in 2009.

Going in line with the Government expectation, the non-conventional renewable energy sector targets to have 10 percent contribution to the national grid by the end of 2015.

The number of non-conventional energy projects that commenced in 2010 were high at 90 compared with 85 in 2009. The non-conventional renewable energy sources have contributed to the national grid with 213 megawatts as at January 31, 2011.

The main contributor for non-conventional renewable energy is still held by mini hydro power and it is 172 megawatts as at January 31, 2011.

The capacity of the mini hydro power energy is generated by 84 projects operating in the prospective areas.

The second renewable energy source is the wind power which accounts for 30 megawatts from the production of three projects.

Biomass-agricultural and industrial waste power stands next with a contribution of 11 megawatts while solar power shows less contribution with two and one projects respectively, a Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) official told Daily News Business. Few foreign investors too have shown interest in investing in renewable energy projects.

“The approval process for projects should be faster than it prevails at present and there should be more Government cooperation to the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA). The Provincial Councils too delay the approval of projects. There should be special incentives given to developers without discouraging them,” Small Hydro Power Developers Association Secretary General S B Niyangoda said.

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• Sri Lanka's New Renewable Energy Tariffs Displace Wind as the Most Expensive

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• Sri Lanka to Build Mini-Hydro and Wind Power Plants

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Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) to Supply 15pct of Sri Lanka's Need by 2015. Wind Power to Play a Major Role

12th January 2011, www.dailynews.lk, By Indunil Hewage

The Government is further reviving its National Renewable Energy Policy to increase the target to 15 to 17 percent of energy generation by Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) by 2015.

Seguwantivu Wind Power and Vidatamunai Wind power Chief Executive Officer Manjula Perera said the Government prepared its first National Renewable Energy Policy in 2008.

Based on this policy, targets were set to have 10 percent of energy generation by Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (NCRE) sources by 2015. So far the country has achieved 5.5 percent of this target. "Wind Power is the only potential large scale NCRE source available in Sri Lanka to achieve the target of the Government.

To date 30 Megawatts of wind power plants are in successful operation in the country.

Another 60 Megawatts of wind power plants are in various stages of construction.

The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) is conducting further studies with a Danish consultancy firm on possibilities of absorbing more wind power into the National Grid, Perera said.

However the total potential of the wind power industry in Sri Lanka is estimated to be 20,740 megawatts. The favourable windy areas in the country are Mannar, Kalpitiya and Ambewela.

Related Info:
• High Potential for Wind Power in Sri Lanka. Five New Plants to be Built. 300MW of Power to be Added

Sri Lanka's New Renewable Energy Tariffs Displace Wind as the Most Expensive

03rd December 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka's new tariffs for renewable energy show that dendro (wood) would be more expensive than wind and municipal waste heat would be paid the highest tariff, displacing wind as the most expensive source.

New tariffs released by the Public Utilities Commission in November 2010 say that municipal waste fired plants would be paid 22.02 rupees a unit (kilowatt hour), up from 15.31 rupees listed last year, under the so-called flat tariff scheme.

Municipal waste disposal is increasingly becoming a problem in Sri Lanka.

Dendro or wood based energy would now be paid a higher 20.70 rupees, up from 18.56 rupees, while the exorbitant rate 23.07 rupee rate paid for wind under the previous scheme had been cut to 19.97 rupees.

Renewables plants under standard contracts cannot be 'dispatched' or dis-connected from the grid during off peak times. They only have an energy charge and no capacity charge.

There have been suggestions by industry experts to give a peak and off-peak tariff for dendro plants so that they will have an incentive to operate at peak times.

Plants such as wind and mini-hydros do not have 'storage' but biomass (including municipal waste) can be run when needed.

At the moment, the CEB's cheapest thermal plant run on residual oil has a energy charge (variable cost) about 9.45 rupees a unit, while private combined cycles costs up to 16.00 rupees.

Biomass from agricultural and industrial waste would be paid 14.53 rupees, up from 13.88 rupees. Waste head recovery plants would be paid 6.64 rupees down from 9.55 rupees earlier.

Mini-hydro plants fabricated locally will be paid 13.32 rupees and others will be 13.04 rupees a unit.

Renewable plants smaller than 10 MegaWatts are connected to Sri Lanka's state-run Ceylon Electricity Board's grid on 20-year standard power purchase agreements, either on the flat tariff scheme or on a tiered scheme.

Under the tiered tariff, plant operators are paid a higher rate in the early years with a commitment to pay a royalty after the end of year 16.

High Potential for Wind Power in Sri Lanka. Five New Plants to be Built. 300MW of Power to be Added

30th November 2010, www.dailynews.lk, By Indunil Hewage

The private sector is optimistic of the wind power industry in Sri Lanka owing to its active participation and investments in the industry.

The potential for growth in the industry is enormous with expectation of at least 300 megawatts of wind power being added to the national system within the next three years.

Seguwantivu Wind Power and Vidatamunai Wind Power Chief Executive Officer Manjula Perera said more investments are on to build wind power plants in the country.

Five new wind power plants are to be built with an estimated cost of over US $ 60 million.

D L R Energy and Senok Wind Power plan to built two new wind power plants of 10 megawatts each. The 4.8 megawatts wind power plant by Naladhanavi (Pvt) Ltd, three megawatts wind power plant by Ace Power and 1.1 megawatts wind power plant by Vidullanka are scheduled to be built in the coming months.

In addition to that, three wind power plants of 10 megawatts each developed by Senok Wind Power, Seguwantivu Wind Power and Vidatamunai Wind Power are in successful operation since June 2010.

These plants are located in the Puttalam District. These plants have already added over 40 gigawatts of energy to the national grid during the last six months. Three more wind power plants of 10 megawatts each in the Kalpitiya region is now under construction. These power plants are being built by Pavandhanavi, Powergen Lanka and Nirmalapura Wind Power.

All these plants are to be connected to the national grid of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) by mid 2011. “Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka has announced the Non-Conventional Renewable Energy Tariff for 2010 and 2011 on November 25. The tariff has encouraged accommodation of more and more renewable energy power plants to the national grid. With the release of new tariff SPPA’s to be signed by CEB with few more companies for wind power projects totalling to around 30 megawatts,” Perera said.

Potential for wind power generation in Sri Lanka has been identified at various stages in the early nineties. This has been verified by the wind atlas released by National Renewable Energy laboratory of USA after detailed studies in Sri Lanka.

Related Info:
Four Wind Power Plants Add 33MW to Sri Lankan National Grid

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Two Wind Power Plants in Puttalam, Sri Lanka

Senok Opens Sri Lanka's First Commercial Wind Energy Plant in Kalpitiya

Sustainable Energy Authority (SEA) - Wind Projects

Sri Lanka to Build Mini-Hydro and Wind Power Plants

07th November 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

Sri Lanka is building more mini-hydro and wind power plants but needs more technology transfer to ensure better use of renewable energy, officials said.

Harsha Wickremasinghe, deputy director general of the Sustainable Energy Authority, said the country was well in its way to achieve planned non-conventional renewable energy targets but more ambitious goals needed greater caution.

"Our target is to deliver 10 percent of energy from non-conventional sources by 2015," Wickremasinghe told a news conference to announce a forthcoming conference on use of renewable energy for sustainable living.

The conference is organised by the German Alumni Association of Sri Lanka with the German Cultural Institute, German Academic Exchange Service and the SEA.

"It's a target we're comfortable with as we have already reached six percent," Wickremasinghe said.

"But there is tremendous pressure for us to increase the target to 20 percent."

He said the SEA was "working cautiously" towards achieving the higher target keeping in mind the difficulties encountered in exploiting non-conventional renewable sources of energy such as their fluctuating nature.

Energy produced from wind and solar plants varies depending on the availability of wind and sunlight and hence cannot be used as base load power.

"There are now 200 megawatts of small hydro power running and another 200MW are under construction," Wickremasinghe said.

The country's first commercial wind power plant began generating energy this year, he said.

Three wind power plants with a capacity of 10MW have been built in north-western Puttalam, a site considered ideal for wind power, and there are plans to build a total of 30MW of wind power plants.

"The wind power plants operated satisfactorily during the last monsoon," Wickremasinghe said.

"We hope to have more wind power plants not only in coastal areas but in other areas as well. We hope to develop more wind energy in Balangoda, (southeast of Colombo) and other windy areas," Wickremasinghe said.

The international renewable energy conference planned for November 26-28 is expected to draw about 120 participants from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Germany, said Janaka Wijesundera, president of the German Alumni Association.

Wickremasinghe said Sri Lanka lacks knowledge in solar and wind power technologies and looked forward to technology transfer and sharing of knowledge through conferences like the one planned by the alumni association.

Germany has mature renewable energy technology and could help Sri Lanka to reduce harmful emissions from fossil fuel burning power plants, Wickremasinghe said "Partnerships like this and awareness raising during conferences like these are very valuable," he said.

"We're a growing economy. Our emissions will continue to rise and it is through partnerships like this that we can share knowledge."

Four Wind Power Plants Add 33MW to Sri Lankan National Grid

25th August 2010, www.dailynews.lk, By Indunil Hewage

Hayleys Group and WindForce (Pvt) Ltd are currently building a 10 megawatt wind power plant at Nirmalapura at Kalpitiya in the Puttalam district with a total investment of Rs 2.3 billion.

The new plant will be known as Nirmalapura Wind Power Ltd. WindForce is a company owned by Seguwantivu Wind Power and Vidatamunai Wind Power.

Seguwantivu Wind Power and Vidatamunai Wind Power Chief Executive Officer Manjula Perera said construction work of the plant is scheduled to be completed by April next year. The farm of wind turbine generators will have seven turbines when completed with each turbine producing 1.5 megawatts of power, generating electricity making use of the strong gust of winds from the Indian Ocean.

Currently a three megawatt windpower plant has been built by the Government in Hambantota. Three other wind power plants are being operated in the country. These are the ten megawatt Seguwantivu Wind Power, Ten megawatt Vidatamunai Wind Power and ten megawatt Senok Wind Power. Currently, 33 megawatts are being added to the national power grid by these four wind plants.

Two more plants, the ten megawatt Nirmalapura Wind Power and ten megawatt PowerGen Lanka plant are under construction.

Construction work of ten megawatt Lanka Transformers and 35 megawatt K L S Energy Lanka have not commenced yet.

So far, licences have been issued to generate over 90 megawatts of electricity using wind power by the Ceylon Electricity Board. There is potential to generate at least 500 megawatts within the next three years using wind power in the country.

Related Info:
Sustainable Energy Authority - Winnd Projects
India Invests $ 18.2mn in Sri Lanka Wind Power Project
Two Wind Power Plants in Puttalam, Sri Lanka

India Invests $ 18.2mn in Sri Lanka Wind Power Project

12th August 2010, www.island.lk

The Board of Investment granted investment approval to Powergen Lanka Limited to set up a 10 MW wind power plant in Puttalam with an investment amounting to US$ 18.55 million from India, the BOI announced yesterday.

"The agreement signed with Powergen Lanka Limited for a project to generate wind power will establish the plant in Uppudaluwa, Puttalam. The project representing an investment of US $ 18.55 million is an Indian investment.

The venture is expected to commence operations by June 2011. The project will utilise seven 1.7 MW wind turbines for the power generation process. Narasimhan Ramkhumar, Director of Powergen Lanka stated that around 75% of the power generation from the wind turbines during the year will be in April to October," the BOI said in a statement.

Directors of the company Mr. Rohan Iriyagolla and Mr. Narasimhan Ramkhumar signed the agreement on behalf of the company.

Jayamapathi Bandaranayake, Chairman / Director General signed the agreement on behalf of the BOI and formally presented the BOI Certificate of Registration to the investors.

Sri Lanka's First Wind Power Park to be Opened by Senok at Kalpitiya in the Puttalam District

18th March 2010, www.dailynews.lk, By Charumini De Silva

Sri Lanka has harnessed the full potential of hydro power and needs to focus on wind as an alternate source of renewable energy.
There are many wind sites in the North and North Eastern parts of Sri Lanka that could be developed for wind power generation. The national grid is able to take in 10 percent of its energy from renewable energy, Senok Group Financial Director, Pancherine Dias told Daily News Business.

Senok is the first commercial wind power park to be opened next week. It is located in the southern part of Kalpitiya in the Puttalam district.

The total investment of the project is US$21 million. Senok has invested 55 percent of this. The World Bank has funded the rest.

The total capacity of the project is 30 megawatts. It is projected to be completed in three phases.

Each phase will supply 10 megawatts to the national grid. Senok was involved in developing wind energy in Sri Lanka for the last 10 years. The company came up with the idea of setting up the wind power park due to a corporate objective of diversification.

“There is much scope to develop 500 megawatts in the next five years in Sri Lanka. Within the next five to six years wind energy will be a sustainable industry in the country.

The country is heading towards a new era. It is timely for the country to explore sources of alternative energy as it is a vital theme for the entire world,” Dias said.

The wind plant is equipped with eight wind turbine generators. It has created jobs for around 40 employees. Wind power is a cost effective and environmental friendly source of energy.

Although the capital investment is high the running cost is much less compared to hydropower generation. Wind power generation is also an environmental friendly source of energy as it is considered as a clear source of energy which is cost free.

Senok Resource Management Associates Director Sunith Fernando said they need more technical expertise and assistance from countries such as Denmark and India.

The country also needs concessionary funds and concessionary taxes for these types of projects, as capital investment is comparatively high.

“It is important that the country has taken a timely decision in adapting to novel alternative energies. It is a key topic in the country in seeking cost effective and environmental friendly energy sources,” Fernando said.

Senok Project Consultant O. J. S. Perera said wind is a natural source and it is limited for a certain season. The company has studied and calculated the strength of the wind in different seasons.

“Southwesterly winds are much stronger than the northeasterly winds,” Perera said.

“However, in terms of the wind resource potential, the mean annual wind speed in the area varies from 7.0 - 7.5 m/s at 50m above ground level. Therefore, this wind power park will provide high and low power according to the strength of the winds,” he said.

Senok expects to commence phase two construction by the end this year.

Image: Group Financial Director, Pancherine Dias, Resource Management Associates Director, Sunith Fernando, Project Director H. De Costa and Project Consultant, O. J. S. Perera at the press conference. (Picture by Sudath Nishantha)

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Sustainable Energy Authority - Wind Projects