SRI LANKA COUNTRY PROFILE

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CP2002-SRI LANKA PAGE 26 Of 106
Alternative Energy Unit to promote the use of alternative energy sources. Among its activities are the promotion of
solar photovoltaic systems for providing electricity to meet the basic needs of rural households away from the grid,
popularizing fuel efficient woodstoves, promoting the use of commercial scale biomass residue and the promotion
of grid-connected mini-hydro power plants and wind farms. Already a pilot scale 3 MW wind energy farm
comprising 5 units each of 600 KW capacity is in operation at a township in the southern coast.
Several Non-Governmental Organizations are actively involved in the development of several alternative energy
systems to provide electricity to rural villages away from the national grid. These systems include micro-hydro
systems, solar PV systems, and bio-gas generators. They work in association with the funding agencies who
provide grants and development banks who provide soft loans to implement these schemes for rural communities.
During the 5-year period 1997-2002, over 20,000 PV systems and nearly 30 MW of mini-hydro systems have been
installed though this scheme. CDM study centres at Universities of Moratuwa and Peradeniya study the GHG
mitigation technologies relevant to CDM projects.
Financing: In general, finances are not readily available for the protection of the atmosphere. Funds from multilateral
agencies are available only to address global pollution issues and not local. The support from the national
government is also minimal. For example, the two fixed ambient air quality monitoring stations supplied by the
World Bank could not be properly maintained, and the mobile station could not be fully utilized, for lack of funds.
This has compelled the authorities to levy a fee for making available the collected data, though it is not bringing
any significant revenue. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) has provided funds with collateral funding from
the International Development Agency and the Asian Development Bank and UNDP to promote the use of
Renewable Energy and Capacity Building, and for implementing a Energy Services Delivery (ESD) Project and
Climate Change Enabling Activities Project. The ESD project, commenced in 1997, provided financial assistance
through concessional loans and grants to support several of the activities described above through the private sector.
In addition, the project included strengthening of institutions engaged in renewable energy activities and setting up
of facilities for testing and certification of energy efficient devices. It will also be possible to generate revenue by
offering the carbon dioxide saved for trading under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) provided for in the
Kyoto Protocol since Sri Lanka has made all arrangements to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The shifting from coal to
natural gas and renewable energy in the power sector as well as in the other two sectors satisfy the basic
requirements of the CDM that will assist Sri Lanka to achieve sustainable development and the trading country to
comply with the Kyoto Protocol.
Cooperation: Sri Lanka participated in a regional programme sponsored jointly by the World Energy Council and
the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to develop a regional plan of action for the
promotion of sustainable use of energy. The first stage of collating data and the identification of possible projects
has been completed. This will be followed by the next stage of submission of the proposals to an Investors Forum
to be held in 2002. The SAARC has set up a Technical Committee on Energy with the objective of formulating a
South Asian vision for energy. Sri Lanka is a member of UNFCCC, Vienna Convention on Protection of Ozone
Layer, Intergovernmental Panel on Geo-sphere and Biosphere, Asia Pacific Network on Global Change research.
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