A top government official alleged that he suspects a mafia working to block renewable energy sources in the country.

Renewable Energy Sources In The Country A Necessity

by Ifham Nizam - Monday, February 27, 2017

• Mini hydro plants may have a negative impact for the surrounding biodiversity, particularly the fauna and flora
• Sri Lanka dreams of becoming an energy self-sufficient nation
• Shallow reservoirs are not unlike paddy fields which are known to contribute substantially to methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide 

Keerthi and Ravindra

A top government official alleged that he suspects a mafia working to block renewable energy sources in the country.

Chairman of the Sri Lanka Sustainable Energy Authority (SLSEA) Eng. Keerthi Wickramaratne who is an ardent nature lover and works for the betterment of the environment firmly denied that they had given any approval for mini hydro plants that would have a negative impact for the surrounding biodiversity, particularly the fauna and flora.

He also said that they are often puzzled as to how fish enter areas after a project commences. He warned that they would investigate such matters.

He stressed that nobody likes to disturb the environment while adding that initial construction does have some impact where they have clearly been instructed to strictly adhere to instructions, keeping in mind that sustainability comes first. He also emphasized that renewable energy is the only option to overcome power cuts and blackouts.

Wickramaratne was optimistic that the only way out of this issue was to make a gradual switch to renewable sources of energy. He stressed that with assistance from developed countries, a switch to renewable energy was a possibility. “Computerised systems and other costs will arise, but switching to renewable sources was a positive move. He said that in this regard Germany has come forward to assist Sri Lanka in the future projects.

“Solar and wind power were the best options for renewable energy sources in Sri Lanka; solar power is a good option. If we increase the use of solar power then costs will decrease, while in the long-term it will be cheaper and most importantly, environment-friendly” he said.

However, Wickramaratne said storage of solar power might be a problem due to various issues. He also noted that offshore sea currents were a viable option “But we have not yet developed it to be used as a renewable energy source,” he added.

Power and Renewable Energy Deputy Minister Ajith P. Perera says power cuts would have to be imposed if mini power plants don’t contribute to the power generation. Responding to recent allegations by a group of environmentalists, he said that small hydro power plants being built in Sri Lanka severely damage the environment and biodiversity. According to him, the power requirement of Sri Lanka is 4000 megawatts and small hydro power plants provide 300 megawatts to the national grid.

Ministry of Power and Sustainable Energy Secretary, Dr Suren Batagoda said that mini hydro power plants are one of the best resources and best options to Sri Lanka especially in keeping with the government renewable policy initiatives. “These projects are definitely beneficial to our country. If not, we would not have any fuel and we would have to rely on wind, solar and hydro power. Our dream is to become an energy self-sufficient nation. Of course, there is a certain amount of environmental damage done during the construction phase. Therefore, we have suggested the CEA identifies all sensitive waterfalls and gazettes them. Thereafter the remaining waterfalls could be utilized for the projects. The only issue is that people are not working together. Sometimes the developer is trying to find money and there is minimum coordination between the people and the developers,” he said.

The government should be cautious when implementing hydro power projects in the near future, warns a senior environmentalist.

Dr. Raveendra Kariyawasam, Ecology Management, Centre for Environment and Nature Study told The Sunday Leader that though the government has given the prime focus on renewable energy especially stressing the importance of clean energy, the adverse impact to the environment should also be taken into consideration. He stressed that small hydro power plants cause damage to the ecosystem. A study carried out by the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom showed that small hydropower plants has caused damage to ecosystems, destroying aquatic fauna and flora. “There are many other studies showing the damage caused by small-scale hydropower plants and the Ministry Agriculture and Environment. They must pay heed and conduct thorough assessments before granting approvals and must work hard to revive aquatic ecosystems already destroyed,” he further said.

He also noted that as a tropical country, Sri Lanka has enough sunshine and wind. These are the ideal renewable energy sources that the government must exploit. He also said that the belief that ‘small’ hydropower systems are a source of clean energy with little or no environmental impact is driving a growing interest in mini, micro, and pico hydropower systems that can generate from less than five kilowatts up to 10 megawatts of energy.

Hydropower may appear to be the cleanest and most versatile of renewable energy sources, but experience shows that optimism about its potential can be misplaced. Hydropower uses water to generate carbon-free electricity. Fossil-fuelled power plants and coal power plants, nuclear power plants produce gases and/or ash emissions in to the air. After 1950 hydropower became popular in many countries including Brazil, China, Sri Lanka, India, and Malaysia. Many small and large-scale dams have been built through natural waterways. In Sri Lanka, Randenigala, Rantambe, and the Victoria dam are some examples of this.

“When building the above mentioned dams the Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) made many outlandish claims including that there would be a surfeit of electricity in Sri Lanka such that we would be in a position to export the excess to India through the Kanya Kumari. Of course, this never happened and people understood this to be another falsehood of the government, he said. Successive governments have a record of false claims with regard to the effectiveness of ‘development’ projects that seem to achieve nothing and in many cases have destroyed extant national assets and the environment.

The GOSL has accelerated micro hydro projects using many catchment areas and inviting private companies to build and operate hydro power plants and sell the electricity to the national grid. This is called Energy Trade.

He said that one such example of the dire consequence due to the installation of hydro power in Sri Lanka is our experience with the Laxapana waterfall. The construction of a private hydropower plant above 200 meters of this waterfall has degraded the ecosystem in the area and is currently facing a threat of completely drying up as the explosions made during the construction work has made the rocks of the waterfall loose.

The banks of the Maskeliya River that supplies water to the waterfall have also collapsed due to these explosions. It seems that in searching for solutions to the growing energy demand the GOSL and its partners are paying scant attention to the environmental degradation their activities cause, he said.

Egypt’s Aswan High Dam has become an iconic symbol of these kinds of projects and highlights the detrimental environmental impacts it has engendered. “Projects like these fundamentally altered river ecosystems, often fragmenting channels and changing river flows. Natural lakes take hundreds of years to evolve from oligotrophic (low in nutrients) to eutrophic (rich in nutrients) status. But man-made reservoirs underwent this transition within a few years, degrading water quality, harming fisheries, bringing siltation and invasion by weeds, and creating environments suitable for mosquitoes and other disease vectors”, a study has shown

In a report on the Environmental Implications of Renewable Energy Sources, the International Energy Agency (IEA) notes: “Small-scale hydro schemes (SHS) tend to have a relatively modest and localised impact on the environment.

These arise mainly from construction activities and from changes in water quality and flow on ecosystems (aquatic ecosystems and fisheries) and on water use”. According to the International Energy Agency, the world has not experienced any major problems from ‘small’ hydropower plants simply because the world has used them economically to earn money without thinking about the ecological impact.

The same situation is arising in Sri Lanka; the private companies are involved in energy trade. The government institutes such as CEA and other responsible officers and institutes make EIA and all legal documents to them; continue ecological degradation without proper pre or post environment assessment.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) and other research institutes have identified many ecological impacts of micro hydropower in the world. Constructions of micro or macro plants can badly affect aquatic ecosystems. Interrupted water flow, barriers to animal movement, water loss from evaporation and loss of biodiversity from the sacrificed portion of rivers amount to a few of the devastating results.

With smaller dams, storage is an increasingly important problem that may require the construction of more low-head systems than anticipated. Reservoirs silting up or becoming overloaded with nutrients are other common problems.

According to the IEA, methane generation occurs largely where water and sediment meet, and this means that a shallower water body is likely to release more methane per unit area than a deeper water body. Shallow reservoirs are not unlike paddy fields which are known to contribute substantially to methane emissions, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

The IUCN in its report on small-scale hydropower plants said in 2012 that the ecosystems were under threat