Sri Lanka’s public radio broadcaster SLBC says it has taken measures to provide a helping hand to promote renewable energy projects.

It has provided a plot of land at its shortwave transmission station in Kuchchaveli, Trincomalee, in the country’s northeast, for a solar power plant.

A Memorandum of Understanding on the project was signed on 25 August by the Chairman of SLBC, Hudson Samarasinghe, and the Vice Chairman of 3W Power Management Limited, Indika Kumara Weerakkody.

SLBC said construction work on the plant would start shortly. It is due to begin operating in the middle of 2023, providing 100 megawatts of power for the national grid.

The solar power project is expected to become an additional source of income for SLBC.

The Kuchchaveli transmission centre was formerly operated by German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle, which returned it to the Sri Lankan government in 2012.