Bio Energy – The Ignored Indigenous Renewable Energy Resource
February 2020, By Eng Parakrama Jayasinghe
It is that kind of time again. I used this phrase as far back as 2012 in an article titled “ Are you ready for the next blackout ? ” However, for Sri Lanka history repeats itself by lamenting on shortage of power and fear of power cuts, as the dry season approaches. Obviously those in authority have forgotten or unaware of the simple advice given in the nursery rhyme on the ants working hard to collect food to last them during the rainy periods.
“පායනා කාලේදී රැ දවල් මහන්සිවී කන්න දේ රැස් කරත් කුඹියෝ”
Although this must be applied in reverse in case of our energy needs, the message is that those in charge of the electricity supply, do not have the intelligence of even the lowly ants. The year 2019 was an exceptionally wet year with floods in many areas and on would have expected whatever measures necessary to have been taken to ensure that the hydro reservoirs to be kept full up to the end of December. It is of no doubt that the intensity of rain has been very high. Thereby we have allowed many millions of cubic meters of water to drain to the sea having wrought havoc by flooding en-route. The fact that the next three months are dry is not a secret. It is also obvious that no action was taken to either to expect this bounty of nature or to institute necessary action to store to be used in the dry season on one hand, and to prevent such deluges to create the untold tragedies observed. We could recall earlier times when more intelligent and far seeing engineers were in charge, under such circumstances attempts were made to erect flash boards on the dams of reservoirs to temporarily enhance the storage capacities and thus save as much water as possible. One wonders if any attempt has been made to even de-silt the reservoirs to reach the original storage capacity.
Please read the full article below, or download and read it.
Download the full article (PDF)
Bio Energy - The forgotten Indegenous Resource