page_title: Electricity sector in Sri Lanka
section_title: Wind power
hierarchical_section_title: Electricity sector in Sri Lanka / Power generation / Wind power
caption_attribution_description: English: Wind turbines of the 3-megawatt Aitken Spence Wind Farm in Ambewela.
context_page_description: The electricity sector in Sri Lanka has a national grid which is primarily powered by hydro power and thermal heat, with sources such as photovoltaics and wind power in early stages of deployment. Although potential sites are being identified, other power sources such as geothermal, nuclear, solar thermal and wave power are not used in the power generation process for the national grid.
  The country is expected to achieve 100% electricity generation by renewable energy by 2025.
context_section_description: The use of wind energy was seen in the country even before 500 BC. The ancient Sinhalese used the monsoon winds to power furnaces as early as 300 BC, making Sri Lanka one of the first countries in the world to use wind power. Evidence of this has been found in Anuradhapura and in other cities.
  The development of modern wind farms was considered by  local and international developers for many years. Such developments were largely hampered due to the many obstacles faced in such developments in economics and infrastructure. The first commercial grid-connected wind farm is the 3 MW Hambantota Wind Farm, northwest of Hambantota.
  Unlike other power sources, power developments from this source would face many challenges during its development timeline. Poor accessibility to potential sites is the first obstacle in the development of a wind farm. Most key transport routes around the country are too narrow or have turns too tight for transportation of turbines larger than 600 KW. Constructing wind farms with turbines smaller than the current commercial-scale megawatt-class turbines would prove to be uneconomical due to the high cost incurred during development.
  The country is also in a long battle against its poor power grid. The grid, apart from being unstable in most provinces, is only capable of handling a small increases in load, typically limited to a few megawatts. Provinces with poor grids, such as the power grids in the Northern, North Central and North Western provinces need complete upgrade to support further commercial-scale developments. This factor contributes to a large percentage in development costs for wind farms constructed at such locations. The government policy limit of 10 MW per wind project also significantly decreases economies-of-scale, further straining such developments.
caption: Turbines of the Ambewela Aitken Spence Wind Farm, the first multi-megawatt wind farm in the Central Province.
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