The Power Game: How we get bluffed.
Posted on December 23rd, 2016

By Garvin Karunaratne

In my endless travels in countries in three continents, the only country where wind turbines have been continuously sited in the coastal areas happens to be Sri Lanka. In Lanzorette in theCanaries, firstly the authorities built two turbines on the coast, but later they realized their mistake and built up dozens of turbines inland, on their hills. Unfortunately they do not have mountains. In Spain and in the USA where I frequently undertake road travel, I have seen them using the mountain power of the wind to turn their turbines.  There are hundreds , even thousands of wind turbines located on mountains.

We are the loser. While countries like Spain have harnessed the mountain wind power and even sell power to France, Sri Lanka lags behind. Last year, being inquisitive,  I purpously went to Kalpitiya to spend a night to assess the wind power there. It was nothing other than a coastal breeze.  I have in the Administrative Service  worked for long in Hambantota and Matara and know the power of the coastal breeze. It is nothing compared with what I have experienced at Ramboda, ,at Madugoda, at Kadugannawa in my almost weekly visits when I did work in Nuwara Eliya, Kegalla and Kandy. That was on the road side. In my irrigation inspections climbing hill and dale, I know that  the wind has an enormous power at vantage points. We have had to crawl on all fours to avoid being blown off. When I stayed a night at the Ohio Forest Circuit bungalow I was  worried  that my car will be blown over. Yet we keep building turbines on the coast, and this time it is at Mannar! I gather that some foreign experts are  sought to find our wind power.  These days not only foreign experts, but even the famous IMF acted clandestinely to make our countries indebted. The IMF told us to import freely, use foreign exchange freely  when we did not have and fed us with loans to match,  so that we became indebted. They even gave us loans at very low interest and also with long no payment grace periods to entice us and our then leaders jumped at getting loans as they would not be in office when repayment would haunt us.  My latest book, How the IMF Sabotaged Third World Development” on Kindle tells that sad story.

May our leaders find the time to read John Perkin’s book Confessions of an Economic  Hit man, where he admits that his role as a foreign expert was to research, fabricate facts and figures  to provide foreign aid to Ecuador for a plan that in some manner will send the aid funds back to the donor countries while at the same time leaving the host country indebted.  AId now came to our countries to make us indebted so that we could forever be in debt, paying our loans. Some one is trying to prove that wind power is not worth  and that we cannot get power. Of course we cannot get power unless we harness the wind at the spots where it is. And to find where the wind is most we now get foreign experts. Can’t we rely on our own officers who sometimes get blown off on their circuits.

In  wind turbines, we are made to grope in the dark. We turned wind power at some figure like twenty five rupees a kw/hr,    when the USA gets  wind power at between five cents  and two and a half cents a  kw/ hour.. When recently some wind power makers offered us power at fifteen rupees our mandarins were surprised.

Recently Power Expert, my friend  Tilak Siyambalapitiya has said that we are heading for power cuts in 2017.

All what I have said in my wind power papers yet stand true They are in Lanka Web , the Daily News and Asian Tribune for anyone interested to read
We need only a few hundred wind turbines sited at Ohio, Ramboda, Madugoda, at Ritigala, at Batalgala in Kegalla District, at Kirigalpotta in Ratnapura and Hayes in Matara. We should set up a Land Development Department” once again and appoint an officer of the calibre of   J.V.Fonseka, a classic hons. Civil servant and the task can be easily done in a year. That was the manner that our leaders, D.S. and Dudley worked then. At a Government Agents  Conference a G.A. had requested for a jeep per District to speed up the Food Production Campaign. Dudley ordered three jeeps per district. Later I was a chief lieutenant under JVF at Agrarian Services and we did make large stores in double quick time. One engineer and Land Development Officer M.P.Jayasinghe recruited as Assistant Commissioner of Agrarian Services  did that trick.  We in the Districts went around with a hammer to hit at concrete to see whether the concrete  mixture was right.  One contractor had to redo all the foundations. It was a blow that made him die. That happened in Anutradhapura.

A few hundred  wind turbines is the answer and  I am sure there will be able officers in the Administrative  and Engineering Services who can do that task. It will be a Program that offers employment to thousands. We can say good bye to power cuts and see our workers  at work on hillocks installing wind turbines.  We will also save millions of dollars that we spend today for importing oil.

Garvin  Karunaratne

Former Government Agent Matara

23/12/2016

5 Responses to “The Power Game: How we get bluffed.”

  1. Lorenzo Says:

    British didn’t leave RULING SL. They left their democratic system in SL with a twist.

    That has been the CURSE of SL.

    NO politician CAN develop SL because that goes against WINNING ELECTIONS.

  2. Christie Says:

    The new Constitution proposed:

    Christie Says:
    December 24th, 2016 at 3:48 am
    මේක ඉන්දියානු ජඩයන් අවුරුදු සියයකට විතර ඉස්සෙල්ල පටන්ගත්ත වැඩේ ඉවරකිරීමක්.
    1927 මොහන්දාස් කරම්චාන්ඩ් නැමති ඉන්දියානු පරපෝසිතයා සින්හලයට පැමිනීම, 1951 බන්ඩ ලවා සින්හලයන් දෙකඩ කිරීම හා ඉන්පසු උන දේවල් වලින්ද සින්හලයන් තලා වල දැමීමයි මේ.
    This is the fruition of what India, Indian colonial parasites did to us almost over a century.
    In1927 the most celebrated Indian colonial parasite, who made his fortunes from black Africa and the most celebrated pedophile made a visit to the island.
    Then in 1951 the Sinhala body politic was divided by Banda,
    The rest is history.

  3. Christie Says:

    Wind turbines are not cheap. They are intermittent supplies providing power only when wind passes. Storage batteries are expensive.

    We do not know what are the long term effects of loss of wind or interfering with wind.

  4. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    I remember seeing a cyclist fall off his cycle for the wind at Madugoda. It was so strong. Almost all the roofs have Tyres on them to prevent their Roofing Sheets from flying off for the wind. Sometimes I felt that my VW that I was driving was like a boat swaying from side to side. Madugoda is an ideal spot for wind turbines, as the wind is constant, never stops blowing. Memories of the 1960’s.

  5. Susantha Wijesinghe Says:

    LORENZO !! WELCOME BACK.

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