APSL Awards Stage II

 

Competition Held in Sri Lanka for Converting Green Energy Ideas into Green Energy Products
(GEIs to GEPs)
The APSL held the second successful stage of the “APSL Awards Scheme  with a competition to submit project proposals to convert green energy ideas (GEIs) into green  energy products (GEPs). The deadline for the submissions was 31 December 2012.
Fifteen submissions were received from participants all over Sri Lanka and the  results of the competition were announced at the Annual General Meeting of the APSL held on 27th April 2013 at the City Grange Hotel, London.11176642

The award ceremony was held at the National Science Foundation Auditorium in Sri Lanka on 7th August 2013.  Chairman NSF-Prof. W. L. Sumathipala, Director NSF-Anusha Amarasinghe, and Director IFS-Prof. C.B.Dissanayake, participated as the Chief Guests. Director IRD Dr. Athula Sumathipala, Prof. I.M. Dharmadasa,  Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy and Dr. Chesmal Siriwardhana represented the APSL UK.
The APSL Awards Stage 2 was an island wide open competition to generate bright ideas/proposals in the clean  energy sector, and to select the most promising ideas, by an eminent body of scientists and introduce these  selected projects to funding bodies, local industry and the Government Ministries to further develop these  ideas/proposals, guide & nurture, incubate and scale-up, for possible manufacturing and marketing the final  products in future. The competition was widely publicised by the Sunday Times, Lankadeepa and Veerakesari  papers (Sponsors for publicity in Sri Lanka) and open to all Sri Lankan citizens living in Sri Lanka and abroad
without any age restrictions. Final assessment selected four winning ideas for awards, and each winner received a Rs25, 000 cash prize,a trophy and a certificate from APSL.

The winning project proposals;
Mrs W. P. Somawathie, c/o (Mr W.G.Ariyawansa) Ranrasa Products,Food drying and packaging centres round the country.

Mr Lal Wickramasinghe
: Hemp (Pan) Industry Centres,–commercialise traditional hemp products

Mr N Geekiyanage- : Durru-Maduru-Mosquito repellent from betel leaves and solar energy

Mr M Hettiarachchi-: Lquid manure from leaves and power generation from sticks.

The three runners -up;

Mrs Sumana Dissanayake -: Cottage industry using Vetakolu fibres

University of Moratuwa-: Sustainable city development & bio-gas project

Mr M Siriwardane-; Milk production centres for food and manure production and job creation round the country.

The awards ceremony included a lively discussion between the academics, scientists, entrepreneurs, award
winners and the general public on various nationally important green energy related topics and problems faced by
small -scale green energy industry.
During the discussions, it was clear that there are three different categories of research;

BlueSky Research, Applied Research and Knowledge Transfer Research Programmes. The first two categories can take decades of
research activities to see any impact on people’s lives. However, at present Sri Lanka needs urgent attentions
from the third category activities; Knowledge Transfer Research Programmes, for immediate jobs and wealth
creation to contribute to the rapid economic and social development of Sri Lanka.
This competition was purposely designed and carried out by the APSL-UK to fulfil this most necessary requirement.
The awards event was organized through joint collaboration of the APSL,-UK, NSF, IFS and IRD.


Finally APSL would like to thank Prof Dharmadasa (Project Leader) and his team, the sponsors for publicity, NSF,
IRD, IFS and most importantly the participants for the successful completion of the Award Scheme Stage II
project.