{"id":97081,"date":"2019-12-30T18:09:59","date_gmt":"2019-12-31T01:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=97081"},"modified":"2019-12-30T18:09:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-31T01:09:59","slug":"his-eminence-the-cardinal-calls-for-clean-energy-instead-of-corrosive-coal-and-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/12\/30\/his-eminence-the-cardinal-calls-for-clean-energy-instead-of-corrosive-coal-and-fossil-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"His Eminence the Cardinal calls for clean energy instead of corrosive coal and fossil fuels."},"content":{"rendered":"

Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\nA floating solar array system installed recently in \nFrance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAccording to an Islan d news report \n(http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=216282), \nHis Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith says no to coal, and environment-friendly \npower projects which utilize renewable energy sources such as wind and solar \npower must be prioritized.
The Cardinal is said to have made this \nremark when Minister of Transport Service Management and Minister of Power & \nEnergy Mahinda Amaraweera called on him on 23rd December.  

So, while \nthere is an increasing understanding of the imminent threat of global warming, \nas well as the  need to move away from Coal, Liquefied natural Gas and other \nfossil fuels, the so-called hard-lipped CEB engineers and others, as well as \nmany politicians continue to favour fossil fuels. The previous Minster of Power, \nMr. Ravi Kaunanayake is said to have even contracted  power suppliers stationed \non ships, and  at great cost to the public purse to bridge the power gap\u201d. Mr. \nKarunanayake is not a person very concerned about costs as he did not even know \nthe rent paid for his own pent-house lodgings and how it was paid by an aptly \nnamed perpetual treasury\u201d. But, even more than the cost, the long and \nshort-term health costs and environmental costs have to considered. They are \nirreparable, irreversible.  People contract diseases and die from the fumes of \nfossil fuels, their sub-micron sized particular dust that  compound with the \nalready critical levels of  toxins coming  from the congested traffic and  farm \nequipment that  burn fossil fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe CEM engineers support fossil fuels claiming that solar and biomass \nenergy sources are not adequate to meet the peak-to-trough power  fluctuations \nand also bridge the currently existing  power gap. We show  below that the use \nof floating solar arrays coupled to hydro-electric power, together with bio-mass \nenergy provides the needed firm power and gird stabilization within an \ninexpensive rapidly installable off-the-shelf \ntechnology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, there is NO REASON WHAT SO EVER to go to \nfossil fuels, when we look at recent reports from the CEB itself. A news report \nin the Island \n(http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=215912) \nsays that the recent rains have shown that when the reservoirs (Tanks) are \nfilled to capacity, Hydro can produce 70% of the total power\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the \ndry period, they produced about 15-20% of the total power. Thus on the average \nthey can produce about 40.% of the total power. However, most of the tanks have \nnot been de-silted according to schedule. If such de-silting is done and full \ncapacities are addressed in other ways too, this AVERAGE can be topped up to 50 \nor 60%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, we can increase the capacity of power generation \nvery rapidly, i.e., within two years by using the now virtually turn-key setting \nup of floating solar arrays. I proposed these for Sri Lanka in 2008-2009 (at a \nmeeting held at  the Presidential secretariat) when the technology was not even \npatented.. Patents came in by 2010 and now China is the world leader. The great \nadvantage of floating solar panels is that we can set them up on the water \nsurface of existing reservoirs. If you take a reservoir like Randenigala as an \nexample, if we cover 50%-75% of the reservoir surface with floating solar \npanels, even if the panels did NOT operate, we increase the out put of the \nturbines because evaporation of water is reduced by 30%. That is, the annual \ncapacity of 500 Gwh is increased  to 650 GWh. Furthermore, the solar panels are \ncapable of producing energy at least at an average of 6 hours per day right \nthrough out the year. The energy is produced during the day time. Then, during \nthat time that energy is used for supply to the grid while  an equivalent amount \nof water is saved in the reservoir for night use. That is, the solar energy is \nSAVED WITHOUT BATTERIES. And has become, in effect, firm power available at all \ntimes as stored water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This power alone is more than the power that will \nbe produced by the proposed coal pwer plant which will come into action only \nseveral years down the road, while solar arrays can e set up within two years \nand after that there is no need to have annual imports of coal and fossil \nfuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In effect, it is easy to significantly increase  the capacity of \neach of the reservoirs very simply and cheaply by  introducing floating solar \narrays in every one of the hydro-electric reservoirs of the country. This gives \nus more than enough firm power to meet the peak-to-tough energy demand \nfluctuations and stabilize the grid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

France has just installed the \nlargest floating solar reservoir last October. But China still has the world’s \nlargest floating solar array. The technology is simple. It merely requires \nputting the solar panels on floater pontoons and connecting them up to the \nnational grid. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The floating solar arrays give us more capacity for \ngenerating power than any other method available WITHOUT cutting into natural \nhabitat, or mobilizing the roof tops of private citizens and having to deal with \nre-strengthening roof structures, and legal issues of  many net suppliers. By \ncutting down the sunlight reaching the water in reservoirs, great environmental \nadvantages are obtained  by reducing the growth of algae aand other biomass in \nthe reservoir and also by reducing silting. Of course, only a part of the water \nsurface is covered.  Studies have also shown that the fish and other aquatic \ncreatures are much better off as the reduced asphyxiating  bio-mass (like \nSalvinia\u201d) leaves behind more oxygen for aquatic creatures like fish, frogs and \nother biota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to floating solar arrays coupled to hydro-power \ninstallations, we also need bio-mass (Dendro)  energy as a standby for extreme \ndroughts. If we set up 75 new Dendro plants within the next three  years, each \nwith a capacity of 10 MW, we have an energy capacity of 750MW, which is more \nthan enough to cover the current energy gap and  peak  demand. There are many \nbio-mass sectors like castor, cinnamon, coconut husk etc., that are not \nexploited for bio-energy so far. Rubber seeds rot in the ground in most rubber \nplantations although they are a great source of energy. Castor grows rapidly \nlike a weed, , and the seeds, stems  and tree can all be burnt to produce \nelectricity using standard technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike coal, LNG and other fossil \nfuels, sunlight and biomass need not be imported annually. They are inexpensive, \nnegligibly polluting and available as well tested off-the-shelf technologies. \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the Minister must please take note of these while the new broom \nsweeps clean \u2013 and clean out the  Aegean stables of the CEB and get Sri Lanka’s \nenergy policy on the correct path. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Prof. Chandre Dharmawardana A floating solar array system installed recently in France. According to an Islan d news report (http:\/\/www.island.lk\/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=216282), His Eminence Cardinal Malcolm Ranjith says no to coal, and environment-friendly power projects which utilize renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power must be prioritized.The Cardinal is said to have made this remark […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chandre-dharmawardana"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97081\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}