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by Ravi Ladduwahetty

A frontline internationally acclaimed Sri Lankan engineering personality asserts that Sri Lanka's forests could be the base for generating thermal power, paving the way for this energy deficient island nation to be self sufficient in power in five years.

This, he advocates, could be through a protracted system of social forestry and fuelwood farming whose products could feed wood-fuelled thermal power stations, whose power could be transmitted through the national grid.

He spells out that this proposal would not only empower the rural economy but also be a tremendous asset in saving annually up to Rs. 15 billion in foreign exchange while also increasing the forest cover by nine times within two years.

Vidyajothi Ray Wijewardene's accomplishments in the sphere of engineering have been unparalleled among his countrymen. He is a Cambridge University graduate in three engineering disciplines- Aviation Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Agricultural Engineering. He has also fortified his erudition with a Master's degree in Business Administration from the prestigious Harvard Business School.

At 77, he is yet full of vim and vigour. Among his foremost engineering marvels is the world's first two wheeled tractor- the Landmaster two wheeled tractor, which he pioneered in Nottingham in 1955. His other hobbies include designing and making aircraft at home and flying them!! A man of many parts, he was placed fourth in Yatching at the Mexico Olympics in 1968, but won a Silver Medal at the Asian Games in Bangkok. His entrepreneurial skills indisputably runs in the family. He is business magnate and newspaper baron Upali Wijewardene's first cousin.

It has been 15 years since Ray Wijewardene had tried to promote the concept to the Ceylon Electricity Board as a viable option for thermal and hydro power. The proposal fell on deaf ears for obvious reasons!!

The case for fuel wood farming

It is patently clear that the usage of biomass has the best scope for power generation. The consumption patterns thus shows:

Imported oil for industry (heating, dryers, kilns etc)- 6 percent, imported oil for electricity- 14 percent, imported oil for lighting-(kerosene, lamps etc)- 3 percent, imported oil for transport- 21 per cent, hydropower- 10 percent, trees (biomass) for industry-10 percent, trees (biomass) for household use- 36 percent.

Project Implementation

The implementation of this project is that the wood is disintegrated into small chips ( in a similar size that they use for parquet flooring) and feed it into a (say) 100 kilowatt stainless steel gasifier. The gas which is generated through a standard turbine driven generator there are similar projects in Spain which are used in Olive groves. They are put into boilers which generate steam when heated activated the turbine, which generates power. This type of generation could be decentralised and operated throughout the country.

The advantage is that these are projects are not capital intensive. The social forests can be established round the country in areas such as Mahailluppallama, Anamaduwa, Anuradhapura, Kurunegala, Polonnaruwa Angunukolapelessa, Lunugamvehera, Thanamalvila, Mahiyangana etc. The power stations could be established in a manner such as a 900 MW in Puttalam, 600 MW in Galle etc.

Land available

Fuel wood farming is particularly well suited to the humid tropical region in which we live in as the growing of trees is well proven to be the agriculture that we do best. Forests still cover 2 million hectares or 27 per cent of the land, while plantation crops and paddy land occupy 12 per cent of the land. Total land area 6,500,000 hectares 100% Natural Forests 1,678,000 hectares 26% Forest Plantations 81,000 hectares 1% Industrial Plantations 769,000 hectares 12% Paddy lands 799,000 hectares 12% Sparsely used crop lands 1,263,000 hectares 20% (chena lands) Range Scrub land 502,000 hectares 8% Others 1,408,000 hectares 21% (which is for urban housing, roads, shores, river reservations and mountains)

Species which could be grown

The species which could be grown are: Gliricidia, Leucaena, Casuaria, Acacia, Erythrena, Felicipium, Callindra, Adathoda, Greviolia, Paulownia and Cinnamon. What is encouraging about these species is that they are all Nitrogen fixing and also beneficial to the soil. All these trees have an inherent ability to throw out a profusion of branches which are known as ( coppices) just below the level before they are lopped. In other words, the trees are not totally cut, but they are cut above a certain height.

The story in a nutshell: 

There are 0.5 million hectares, a third of the existing 1.7 million hectares of scrub and hena lands in Sri Lanka which would provide ( based on a modest yield of 20 tonnes/hectare/year which would provide ( inter-alia) 10 million tonnes of fuel wood annually on a sustainable basis to produce... ( inter-alia)...10,000 Gegawatt Hours of domestically sourced electricity (nearly twice the supply of hydropower) from around 1200 Megawatts of small (1 to 20 MW thermal (wood fuelled thermal power stations located throughout Sri Lanka which would otherwise cost the country... Rs. 15 billion in foreign exchange annually to import polluted fossil fuel/oil/charcoal in thermal energy.

On the other hand, these wood fuelled thermal stations would also employ upto 150,000 rural families, which is 5 percent of the population. It is where each family manages three hectares of fuelwood plantations and earning about Rs. 7500 per month uninterrupted even at the present delivery price of Rs. 1000 per tonne. This would also increase the forest plantation cover by nine times to absorb far more than likely Carbon Dioxide emissions, thereby becoming the most environmentally benign of all thermal generating systems. This would also enable each energy plantations producing fuelwood within two years of planting to renew newer techniques of high density Short Rotation Coppicing (SRC) Forestry. 

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