Cabinet okays proposal for providing solar power to 25,000 low-income families

The Cabinet had approved a proposal to provide solar power to 25,000 low-income households, Minister of Urban Development and Housing and Chief Government Whip, Prasanna Ranatunga, told journalists in Colombo yesterday (15).

The Minister said the National Housing Development Authority (NHDA) had selected 11,000 partially completed houses, among 15 housing projects implemented by the NHDA, to provide free solar power under a joint project of the Urban Development and Housing Ministry and the Power and Energy Ministry.

The Ministry of Urban Development and Housing would select the other 14,000 houses, Ranatunga said.

The Minister added that Sri Lanka had plans to produce 648 Gigawatts of electricity per year through renewable energy sources, and the country could save 116.64 million US dollars, currently spent on importing oil annually to generate electricity.

Promoting renewable energy to have a more sustainable energy mix has been declared an important policy goal by the past few governments.