Deputy Minister of Energy Arkam Ilyas said Sri Lanka has roughly 300 megawatts of wind power projects under construction and aims to integrate the bulk of that capacity into the national grid within the next 18 months, broadening the renewable build-out beyond the battery storage rollout he outlined last month.
“Batteries alone cannot do this. A battery is just a medium,” Ilyas said. “We need more solar. We also need a greater share of renewable energy sources.”
He said turbine components for the 50 MW Mannar wind farm had recently begun arriving on site, alongside two 50 MW projects at Mullikulam — together accounting for about 100 MW of the immediate pipeline. The largest single addition is the 150 MW Kondachchi wind project, for which the government signed a tripartite agreement with the Asian Development Bank last month covering transaction advisory and financing.
Beyond wind, Ilyas said the ministry is studying floating solar systems on inland water bodies in parallel with rooftop and ground-mounted projects. “We expect to add around 200 to 250 megawatts from these projects, along with rooftop and ground-mounted solar systems,” he said.
He acknowledged that transmission network upgrades will need to keep pace with the new generation capacity, having previously identified grid bottlenecks as the main constraint on renewable integration.
The deputy minister said the government is targeting integration of about 300 MW of fresh renewable capacity within a year-and-a-half. The build-out coincides with the 300 MW BESS rollout already under procurement, which is meant to absorb intermittent renewable supply.
Source: Newswire.
