1.0 Introduction and Historical Back Ground

The need and urgency for achieving a status of energy independence for Sri Lanka has been discussed with increasing frequency in the recent years. This is driven by the two related and increasingly compelling trends seen, one of the end of the fossil fuel era on one hand and the bitter truth of the global warming and climate change which is now impossible to ignore any more. Of particular relevance to Sri Lanka has been the more and more disturbing trend of the economic and fiscal impacts.

The continuing and increasing dependence on imported sources of energy, has a knock on impact on all sectors of the economy with increasing negative influence on the balance of payments and parity rate. From a relatively comfortable status of the share of fossil fuel imports being 12 % of the total imports and being comfortably funded by the export revenue of the three traditional imports, prior to 2010, it is now stands at over 30% of the total import bill. It is no longer possible for Tea, Rubber and Coconuts to generate adequate foreign exchange to import the oil and coal. It is distressingly obvious that we are able to continue on this basis, only because of the remittances received from the expatriate workers, some of whom work under most unsatisfactory conditions. The country should not be in such a unsatisfactory status as the issue of future energy security, demanding a much greater attention than what it is receiving at present, driven by the euphoria of decidedly temporary dip in the world market price of oil, which has already bottomed out.

It is encouraging that these issues have received the attention of the successive governments with ambitious goals and targets spelled out in the published policy statements. The publication “An Energy Empowered Nation” with the Ten Year Development Plan published recently aims at a goal of 100 % indigenous energy by year 2030. This paper attempts to spell out a road map to achieve the above goal, examining the present status, Sri Lanka’s indigenous energy potential and the barriers to overcome and most importantly the strong policy initiatives that are needed.