The government will begin a programme to provide electricity for 25,000 low-income houses through solar panels. It is expected to add 500 megawatts of renewable energy to the national grid, Urban Development and Housing Minister Prasanna Ranatunga said yesterday.
The Cabinet paper for this programme was also approved recently. Under this 25,000 houses will be selected out of the 69,000 houses that have suspended construction work due to various reasons.The construction work of these 25,000 will be completed first and 20 kilowatts of electricity could be generated by the solar panels installed on the roof of those houses. The Minister further said electricity will be added to the national grid in addition to being used in these houses.
Many housing projects launched by the National Housing Development Authority for low-income families have now stopped due to various reasons since 2017. This programme will be implemented for selected housing schemes begun as villages on government lands in 11 Districts namely Monaragala, Ampara, Batticaloa, Trincomalee, Polonnaruwa, Anuradhapura, Vavuniya, Mannar, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi and Jaffna.
The Minister also said that the project will be operated jointly with a foreign company and the maintenance of the solar panels will be carried out by the investor for 20 years. It is expected to generate 648 gigawatts of electricity per year through this project.
Therefore, the Minister also said that US$ 116.64 million will be saved from the annual cost of importing fuel to Sri Lanka. Minister Ranatunga further said that this project will save the country US$2,332.80 million in foreign exchange during the contracted twenty-year period.
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