The Island Editorial

A solution ‘burning’ in the sky

09 September 2016

 

The government has embarked on an ambitious project to tap solar energy as part of its strategy to avert a looming power crisis. Addressing the media at the Sri Lanka Foundation in Colombo, Minister of Power and Renewable Energy Ranjith Siyambalapitiya said, the other day, that the government project, Surya Bala Sangramaya, would convert one million rooftops to solar power plants and the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) would buy the extra solar power generated by each and every household. This kind of strategic planning is long overdue.

Our experience, however, is that many a pair of shoes is worn out between saying and doing where politicians and their promises are concerned. We hope this particular ministerial pledge will be carried out.

Even before the government launched its solar power project to encourage the public to opt for clean energy, they must have been wondering whether the CEB was doing its damnedest to promote that option, given the frequent blackouts and brownouts throughout the country. In some areas of the Colombo District, power cuts are slapped haphazardly and the customers are kept in the dark as to the real causes thereof. A couple of months ago all generators meant for domestic use were sold out thanks to prolonged, countrywide power cuts. The CEB is notorious for being swayed by various lobbies promoting different types of power generation. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe told Parliament on Wednesday he was informed that some CEB engineers preferred coal to LNG in generating power. So, the possibility of a section of the CEB technical staff promoting commercial interests on the sly through frequent disruptions to the power supply cannot be ruled out.

The CEB strategy of meeting the national power requirement reminds us of what the late President J. R. Jayewardene, unable to ensure national security, once said. He shifted the onus of ensuring public security to the people themselves by declaring they had to look after their own security—thamunge arakshawa thamunma bala ganna one.

Power and Renewable Energy Deputy Minister Ajith Perera has told the media that the public will have to buy solar panels and inverters without depending on the CEB or the government. There lies the rub. The state has to make a meaningful intervention to incentivise the public to take to solar power generation if the government project is to reach fruition.

Everything associated with solar power generation needs to be exempted from taxes at a time the government is struggling to cope with the increasing demand for electricity. There is no way any technology can be popularised, however clean and favourable to the country it may be, unless it is made affordable and freely available. The solar energy installation costs remain prohibitive. True, private and state banks have come forward to offer loan facilities and the CEB customers are in a position to buy solar panels and pay their loans through the additional income they receive through the supply of extra solar power they generate to the national grid. But, the government ought to ensure that the interest rates on loans for solar panels are slashed to encourage more and more people to wean themselves from the consumption of extremely costly and harmful thermal power.

Meanwhile, the solar power generation project, which, we repeat, is the way forward, is still at nascent stages due to various factors including the high costs and people’s reluctance to take risks. It will be years before the country is in a position to unleash its full potential to tap solar energy. Therefore, the government’s pursuit of this goal through its Surya Bala Sangramaya should not be at the expense of the CEB’s short and medium term generation plans if the power crisis is not to be precipitated.