Energy Minister Anura Karunathilake has dismissed as “entirely baseless” claims that the government is curtailing rooftop solar power while favouring other generation sources, telling a news briefing in Colombo on Saturday that solar capacity is being expanded, not squeezed.
The denial follows sustained complaints from the solar industry, including a National Chamber warning that new directives put sector jobs at risk.
The numbers the minister gave
Karunathilake said the government facilitated the addition of 1,513 MW of rooftop and ground-mounted solar to the national grid over the past two years, the Daily Mirror reported.
He broke that down as 1,141.1 MW of rooftop solar added during 2025 and 2026 and a further 534 MW from ground-mounted projects.
Looking ahead, he said grid-connected solar capacity would rise by a further 4,585.7 MW by 2029. For 2027 alone, the plan is to add 1,392 MW, comprising 500 MW of rooftop solar and 642 MW of ground-mounted projects.
The figures do not reconcile
Both outlets carry the minister’s numbers identically, and in both, two of the sums fail:
| Stated total | Components given | Components sum to | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,513 MW added in two years | 1,141.1 + 534 | 1,675.1 MW | 162.1 MW over |
| 1,392 MW planned for 2027 | 500 + 642 | 1,142 MW | 250 MW short |
Because Hiru News and the Daily Mirror print the same figures, the discrepancy appears to originate in the briefing rather than in either newsroom’s reporting. LankaNewz reports the figures as given and does not reconcile them.
Context
The dispute is about curtailment — the practice of ordering solar output down when daytime generation exceeds demand and threatens grid stability. The government has argued that battery storage is the fix, and has been procuring it: WindForce won battery awards totalling 28.25 MW this week, and 16 battery facilities were commissioned at Galle earlier this month.
Not reported
Neither outlet says who made the allegations the minister was rejecting, and neither puts to him the industry’s specific complaints about net metering terms or new connection approvals. No CEB official is quoted, and neither report gives the volume of solar generation curtailed to date.
