New wind farm will help save 2,000 mn litres of diesel in 20 years

By Ifham Nizam

Sri Lanka would be able to stop burning more than 2,000 million litres of diesel in thermal power generation during the next 20 years thanks to the 100MW Mannar Island Wind Power farm ‘Thambapavani’ to be declared open tomorrow by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Power and Energy Minister Dullas Alhaperuma told the media, yesterday. He added that within the next 20 years by generating electricity from wind power, would also prevent the release of some 5.7 million metric tonnes of carbon into the environment.

The Minister said President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had included in his State Policy Statement the use of renewable energy to uplift the economy.

The Wind Farm in Mannar which will have 30 wind turbines along its coastline has been completed with a MW capacity of 3.45 per each tower.

Several key factors had been taken into consideration in the construction of the Thambapavani Wind Power Park in the Mannar District, the Minister said, adding that it was 100% eco-friendly.

The Minister said Cabinet approval would be obtained for the construction of six more turbines.

CEB Chairman Eng.Vijitha Herath said that the Mannar  plant would generate 400 Giga Watt Hours (400 million kilo watt hour units – kWh) annually, at Rs. 8 per kWh.

Vestas Asia Pacific (responsible for engineering, procurement and construction and provide the delivery, installation and commissioning of 30 V126 – 3.45 MW wind turbines, and all civil and electrical work including the final main gravity foundation), along with their specialist civil engineering sub-contractor, Access Engineering PLC (responsible for geo-technical investigations and pilling, the construction of the foundation for the wind turbines and the installation of medium voltage cables), had achieved progress amidst the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chairman said.

The Mannar wind farm will be operated as a semi dispatchable power plant supported with advance wind forecasting system to optimize and control the wind generated electricity to the national grid. This is in addition to the bird detection RADAR system to implement selective shut down of wind turbines to avoid bird collisions, if any.

Funding required for this wind farm and other associated facilities in Mannar and Anuradhapura has been arranged through a loan provided by Asian Development Bank. The project is also supported with a consultancy service contract with COWI AS of Denmark and Warranty Operations and maintenance contract (WOM contract) for the initial three-year period.