Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Thursday Nov 21, 2024
Thursday, 29 October 2020 00:45 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Cabinet this week granted approval to add six additional wind turbines to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) funded Mannar Island Wind Power project aimed at generating an additional 20 MW of energy.
According to the Cabinet press briefing held on Tuesday, construction work of the 100 MW wind power plant is being carried out in Mannar Island under $ 200 million investment by the ADB, and is currently at 73% completion.
The Government plans to use $ 47 million of the remaining funds from the ADB to install six wind turbines which are expected to increase the capacity of the wind power farms by an addition 20MW.
The policy approval for the proposal has been granted by the ADB.
The Mannar wind power project has been plagued with delays since it was proposed in 2016. The project finally commenced in March 2019. The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB), which owns the project, is expecting that the rest of the construction work be completed by the end of this year and an additional 100 MW will be added to the national grid.
The contract has been awarded by the CEB to Vestas Asia Pacific A/S, a Danish wind turbine manufacturer, to build the first large-scale wind farm in the southern coast of Mannar.
The project comprises 30 state-of-the-art wind turbines.
In August the CEB said it had completed the final main gravity foundation along with the erection of the 10th wind turbine. The primary contractor, Vestas Asia Pacific, along with their specialist civil engineering contractor, Access Engineering PLC, has achieved satisfactory progress amidst the challenging conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the CEB, this is the culmination of a long-term effort by them to develop wind power in a large scale, exploiting the major monsoonal wind systems in Sri Lanka.
