By Professor Emeritus I. M. Dharmadasa Sheffield Hallam University, United Kingdom

This article summarises the history of solar energy development in Sri Lanka that I have been involved with, over the past 40 years and my thoughts on the present situation in the country. As an active solar energy conversion researcher in both academia and industry (British Petroleum Research in London), I have seen the maturity of this technology since the late 1980s and started to promote it in schools and community events in the United Kingdom.

I then extended this work to my native country, Sri Lanka, in 1991, by initiating a UK-DFID (UK Department of Foreign and International Development) funded and BC (British Council) managed Higher Education Link (HE-Link) programme. This is how I met all renewable energy promoters in Sri Lanka. This article brings back my memories from the work done in collaboration with various people, starting in the late 1980s.

During the six-year HE-Link programme, I worked with several universities (Peradeniya, Colombo, Kelaniya, Moratuwa and Ruhuna) and organised conferences, seminars and public lectures in schools and government ministries. There were only two or three small solar energy companies at that time, struggling to do business, and they all joined together to promote renewable energy initiatives in the country.

Among many interested academics, senior engineers like Dr. Ray Wijewardane joined all these events, and I met three notable entrepreneurs working in this field starting in 1985. They were Lalith Gunaratne, Pradeep Jayewardene and Viran de Perera. These three friends, who were brought up in Canada, visited Sri Lanka for a holiday after their marriages and decided to stay in Sri Lanka and start a solar energy business. Their starting work was a mobile solar water pump, but about 80% of the people who were not connected to the national grid asked for solar lighting rather than solar water pumping.

Sir Arthur C Clark also gave them a good helping hand and they started to install small solar home systems in rural areas. They also started to import solar cells and assemble SUNTEC 36 W solar modules in the country, but due to various barriers from outside, that project had to be terminated. There were numerous barriers within the country itself. P remember a newspaper article that appeared in Sri Lanka titled Solar Power Suitable for Lotus Eaters”. After all this fantastic work in the late 1980s, Lalith returned to Canada, Viran started an eco-tourist centre, and Pradip continued to work in the solar energy field.

Most of these entrepreneurs told me that the government authorities did not listen to them due to their vested interests. For this reason, I made the decision to promote renewables as a research scholar without any connection to a commercial company. This approach worked well, and I made two or three visits to Sri Lanka in some years delivering public lectures in ministries, universities and in schools. I also wrote numerous articles in the local press and completed many interviews on applications of renewable energy sources.

Solar home systems, at early stages, had about 50 W solar panels. These were combined with lead-acid batteries to store energy and provide 5-6 lights at night. This was also enough to power a black-and-white television for a few hours. Depending on the number of lights used, the cost of such a system varied between Rs 40,000 and Rs 60,000.

Meanwhile, the Ceylon Electricity Board also worked to expand the national grid under the country’s 100% electrification programme. As the national grid is available almost everywhere, the interest in small solar home systems gradually disappeared.

There were many people in the country involved in promoting renewables, and I was able to visit Sri Lanka every year to spend a few weeks at a time and work with numerous institutes.

I also personally met almost all Science & Technology Ministers, starting from Mr Bernard Soysa, and some Power and Energy Ministers to introduce renewable energy projects. Although the government’s take-up was slow, the private sector developed very rapidly, starting many new companies for solar system installation.

Gradually, the main interest turned to the grid-tied larger solar systems installed on freely available rooftops. With the Soorya Bala Sangramaya” programme introduced around 2016, solar roofs began to be connected to the grid via Net Metering”, Net Accounting”, and Net Plus” methods. A few years ago, a 5 kW solar roof used to cost about Rs 14,00,000, but today, the cost has come down to about Rs 9,00,000. Each 5 kW solar roof installed in the country removes the need to burn 7.5 metric tons of imported coal, introducing numerous health and economic benefits to the nation, including reducing the country’s huge import bill.

I also collaborated with the ex-chairman of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA), Prof. Krishan Deheragoda, to bring two 500 kW solar farms to the country, introducing larger solar farms. After promoting renewable energy over four decades, I am pleased to see numerous large solar energy systems beginning to appear in the country, including Floating Solar Farms”.

The current government’s interest in indigenous, hydro, solar, wind, biomass and bio-gas energy, as well as the contributions from over 200 private solar energy companies to power Sri Lanka, is a very encouraging sign.

As a result of the six-year HE-Link programme SAREP (South Asia Renewable Energy Programme), the Solar Asia Conference series and the Solar Village” project evolved. Solar Asia Conferences have taken place twice in Sri Lanka, once in Malaysia and once in India.

A pilot solar village started in 2008, and nine solar villages have been established in the country since. The concept of solar village is to empower rural communities by introducing a regular wealth creation method using solar energy and guiding them to develop themselves sustainably. This, in turn, contributes to reducing poverty and mitigating damaging climate change, benefits 80% of the Sri Lankan population who live in villages, and paves the way for the prosperity of Sri Lanka. To attract external funding and rapidly replicate solar villages in Sri Lanka, a Solar Village SDG” community interest company (CIC) was formed in November 2024.

According to the latest SLSEA statistics, Sri Lanka has 2000 MW of solar and 200 MW of wind installations. This is 2.2 GW and a good fraction of the total power production capacity (~5 GW) in the country.

The intermittent nature of solar and wind can currently be balanced using hydropower until the fast-developing green hydrogen technology is established in Sri Lanka. When solar power is at its maximum power production during the daytime, the hydropower can be reduced simply by controlling the flow of water without any technical difficulties. With the positive steps taken by the GOSL and the private sector, Sri Lanka could become a renewable energy island in the future, giving the country many health and economic benefits and attracting many tourists from around the globe.

To achieve this noble goal, every sector in the country should work together. The general public should understand the benefits of using renewables and install more systems in the country, perhaps via Crowd Funding”.

It is now clear that ROI (Return on Investment) from a solar roof is greater than the interest earned by keeping the money in the bank. PV companies must improve their after-sale service” to increase customer satisfaction and help their customers get the most from their investment by promptly rectifying any issues arising from these new technologies.

The CEB has a great responsibility to gradually improve the national grid by reducing energy leakages and replacing weak transformers and grid lines to move towards a smart grid, enabling the absorption of more indigenous solar and wind energy.

(The Author is an Emeritus Professor with 51 years of university service, over 40 years of active solar energy research, and over 35 years of renewable energy promotional work. He has supervised 30 Ph.D. students and published 254 scientific articles and two books in this field.)