Dullas: Fossil fuel plants burning Lanka’s foreign earnings

By Ifham Nizam

Sri Lankan diesel and furnace oil plants released over 13 million kilograms of carbon on Wednesday (31) alone to generate 15.3 gigawatt hours, Minister of Power Dullas Alahaperuma said yesterday at the opening ceremony of the Deduru Oya Power Plant in Kurunegala.

Minister Alahaperuma said that the country spent a lot of money on fossil fuels and it was important to increase the output from renewable energy.

“The annual expenditure on fuel is equivalent to the annual remittances from our migrant workers. We must put a stop to this. Then only can we rebuild the economy and the environment. We are determined to reduce electricity generation from diesel and furnace oil to five percent by 2025 and to one per cent by 2030.”

Minister Alahaperuma said the designs and construction of the Deduru Oya Power Plant had been done by local engineers. The power plant is expected to add 4.8 gigawatts per year to the national grid.

Alahapperuma said that it had been planned to add 600 megawatts of solar power to the national grid through, 7000 power plants to be constructed within a few years.

State Minister, BM Herath, MPs Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Manjula Dissanayake, SB Dissanayake, Engineer Vijitha Herath, Chairman of the Ceylon Electricity Board, Nandika Pathirage, Chairman of Lanka Energies, and officials from the Ministry of Power and Ministry of Renewable Energy, were also present on the occasion.