The first plant built under a government programme to add 300 megawatts of solar capacity to the national grid was connected at Veyangoda on Sunday, the Daily Mirror reported.
The 3MW ground-mounted project was inaugurated in the morning under Minister of Ports, Civil Aviation and Energy Anura Karunathilaka. It was built by Helis Fentons Limited and is the first in a planned series of land-based solar plants across the country with a combined target of 300MW.
The programme is being run by the Ministry of Energy and its affiliated institutions, with the capacity built by private developers — the delivery model the government has leaned on to expand renewable generation while reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels.
The Veyangoda plant is expected to generate about 6.35 million kilowatt hours of electricity a year. Authorities put the associated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions at roughly 4,339 tonnes annually. Ada Derana, which also reported the launch, said the plant uses 640-watt bifacial panels, which generate from both faces; that report could not be retrieved directly and is not cited as a source below.
Also present were Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture Munir Mulafer, Gampaha District MP Ruwan Mapalagama, Attanagalla Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman A.D.D. Wijesinghe and Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority Chairman Dr. T.M. Wijendra Bandara.
The connection follows a run of renewable and storage announcements from the same ministry. Karunathilaka told Parliament this week that no power cuts are expected despite El Niño conditions, pointing to battery storage coming online, and the government last week approved Sri Lanka’s first canal-top solar pilot on the Viyana Canal at Mahiyanganaya.
Neither the total cost of the Veyangoda plant nor the timetable for the remaining capacity under the 300MW programme was given.
