Why daytime powercuts in Sri Lanka is nonsensical

 In short: we get more solar energy than we could possibly use. So why not make use of it?

Yes, there are problems with relying on solar. It's affected by weather. It's not available for half the day. The output is variable. But as a country, Sri Lanka is not affected by this as much as you'd think it is.

First of all  - the not available for half a day thing is consistent here. We don't have short winter days or extremely long summer days. Every day is roughly 12 hours of sunlight (except in super tropical thunderstorm season) and 12 hours of no sunlight. I'll get to the 12 hours of darkness issue later in the article.

The output variability can be an issue, but again, for most of the year, you have at least a few hours of unimpeded sunlight.

So, why aren't we using it?

Land looks like a major issue, but it really isn't. We have lots of open roof space, especially in suburban areas (standalone houses, mostly, whose energy consumption is much lower than what could be generated by solar panels). There's factories with lots of roof space. There is also an additional benefit to installing panels on roofs - temperature control. It would block a lot of heat that would get in through the roof otherwise.

In addition to that, there are streets. Sure, this is a bit more on the impractical side, but you could built slanting roofs over the sidewalk if you want to harness the energy off there as well. As an added bonus, your brain won't fry in the ten minutes it takes to walk to the bus stop.

Then there are train tracks and train stations. As a regular commuter, train stations clearly need more roof to cover the length of those platforms (so that we aren't drenched getting on/off a train in the rain), so why not use it as a side business and generate some electricity at the same time?

The tracks could be used too, as trains are usually a standard size, height-wise, which means you could install panels above the tracks in some clear areas where they don't impede signal visibility. Keeping the vines off them might be a problem though.

So basically, we don't necessarily need more land for this. Use those roofs. They're everywhere.

But the problem here is, even if you wanted to use the roof and install a solar unit for your house, it is pretty expensive and inconvenient. Panels and all that are expensive. Even if you prepared to bear the cost, the approval process for net metering is a pain and takes way too long. If they could reduce this to a couple of weeks at least, people might be more willing to make that investment. And if better loan schemes were available, that would help too.

The night time issue

As you are aware, we don't get any sunlight for approximately 12 hours a day. Can we generate enough power for those 12 h during the day? I don't have the figures, but it's likely. Whether we can store that power is another issue entirely.

Batteries would be way too expensive and polluting. However, we might be able to use our hydroelectric infrastructure to our advantage here and build a sort of water battery. Basically, pump the water upstream during the day, generate electricity as is flows down again at night. It will be lossy, but it's likely to be less expensive and polluting than batteries.

But regardless, it will be a project you would have to give a lot of thought to, so I'll leave this issue there. I might elaborate on this later.

In conclusion

Nighttime electricity generation or storage may be an issue, but for most days, you can generate a frankly ridiculous amount of electricity during the daylight hours using solar power. Therefore, there should be no reason we should be having electricity shortages during the day. 

I am aware that this is a very surface level article, but I needed to vent my frustration about this situation. That's it for now, I might come back and write a more detailed article on this later. 

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See you next time!