(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Sri Lanka today inked an agreement with the government of Canada to construct a floating solar power generation plant in the Maduru Oya Reservoir in the Mahaweli Economic Zone.
A Cooperation Agreement was signed between the Ministry of Power and Energy, and Business Development and the Canadian Commercial Corporation (CCC), Canada’s government to government contracting organization, to construct a 100 megawatt (MW) in the Maduru Oya reservoir yesterday(09) in the presence of President Maithripala Sirisena at the Presidential Secretariat.
Dr. Suren Batagoda, Secretary, Ministry of Power and Energy and Ms. Yvonne Chin, Asian Region Director, Canadian Commercial Corporation signed the Cooperation Agreement before President Maithripala Sirisena.
As a measure to reduce generation of costly thermal power, the Sri Lankan government has planned to set up floating solar power generation plants on the reservoirs in the Mahaweli Economic Zone.
The Cabinet of Ministers had given approval to implement the construction of a 100 MW of floating solar power plant as an integrated project joint venture of the Sri Lanka Mahaweli Authority, the Ceylon Electricity Board and the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority.
President Maithripala Sirisena, in his capacity as the Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment and Minister of Power, Energy and Business Development Ravi Karunanayake have jointly proposed to establish a joint venture with the Canadian Solar Institute to implement the project as a storage project to store solar energy with the use of solar panels in accordance with the proposal made by the Canadian Government.
Accordingly, floating solar power plants will be built in several parts of the country, expecting to obtain 50 percent of the country’s electricity requirement through renewable energy sources by the year 2030.
The first phase of the project will be implemented centering the Maduru Oya reservoir in the Mahaweli Economic Zone, in collaboration with the Canadian Solar Institute as a storage project to store solar energy with the use of solar panels.
Approximately 500 acres of the reservoir will be used for the project, which is less than 4% of the total extent of the reservoir.
The project is to be completed expeditiously and the first 10 megawatts will be generated by the end of November and the construction to generate the total capacity of 100 MW will be completed by the end of September 2020.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Minister of Power and Energy, and Business Development Ravi Karunanayake, Secretary of the Mahaweli Development and Environment Ministry Anura Dissanayake, officials from the Ministry of Power and Energy, Canadian Ambassador to Sri Lanka David McKinnon and Canadian Commercial Corporation representatives were also present.
