Agriculture has beaten rocket science - Minister Ranawaka

Power and Energy Minister Patali Champika Ranawaka said while man may have excelled in many sciences including rocket science, it is man’s primary vocation, agriculture which was not considered prestigious of all sciences, that has finally come to the rescue of mankind in one of its darkest hours in civilization.

Ranawaka was addressing the Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference (DIREC) yesterday.

Speaking at the five-day summit in Delhi, the Minister reminded it is modern biomass or sustainably grown modern plantations that have come to salvage the world which is fast reaching a crisis point with the depletion of fossil fuel.

“The Power and Energy Ministry recently conducted a long-term electricity generation expansion planning study to figure out the status of different generation options.

The candidate options considered for this study included oil, coal, LNG, hydro, nuclear and Dendro (modern biomass). Contrary to the popular belief that the renewable energy technologies are generally expensive, the study revealed that the Dendro power is the most cost effective power generation option,” he said. Minister Ranawaka in India attending the Delhi International Renewable Energy Conference held talks with India’s Renewable Energy Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and Power Minister Susilkumar Shinde on the sidelines of the conference.

Minister Ranawaka briefed the two Indian ministers the opportunities that have opened up in post-war Sri Lanka for greater economic co-operation between India and Sri Lanka. During his meeting with Minister Abdullah who was also a former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Minister Ranawaka sought India’s active participation at the 2011 ‘Vidul Lanka’ Renewable Energy exhibition.

Dr Abdullah has expressed his desire to provide technical assistance in grid connectivity and it was agreed that an expert mission would be sent to Colombo shortly to discuss the plans. Minister Ranawaka also held discussions with India’s National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) Ltd Chairman Arup Roy Choudhury and visited the Dadri Power Station complex near Delhi managed by the NTPC.

The Delhi International Renewable Energy conference theme was ‘Up-scaling and Mainstreaming Renewables for Energy Security, Climate Change and Economic Development’.

Speaking during the discussion, Minister Ranawaka stressed the need for improving renewable energy as a form of mainstream energy. He said that considerable amounts of Sri Lanka’s energy are from renewable sources. Sri Lanka’s emission levels are far below than world average.

He added that even though there are good potential for expanding wind power in Sri Lanka, due to technical difficulties Sri Lanka is facing problems of dispatching such renewable energy.

Therefore, the issues of storage and dispatch of specially solar and wind energy have to be addressed.