Sri Lanka’s first-ever solar panel manufacturing plant to open in Katunayake

Japanese Sri Lanka Friendship (JSF) Corporation, a Board of Investment (BOI) company, will commence operations at its production facility in Katunayake next week, becoming Sri Lanka’s sole manufacturer of solar panels. 

JSF will manufacture solar panels and assemble inverters and LED lighting solutions in Sri Lanka to serve domestic and international markets across Europe, Asia, the US and Middle East. 

The Japanese company will employ its state-of-the-art technology and service solutions in Sri Lanka, while production will commence under the supervision and guidance of Japanese technicians.

The company offers a 35-year generation warranty on all its solar panels under the brand name Sakura Solar and will serve the domestic and corporate clientele all over Sri Lanka, offering significant cost and service benefits. 

JSF Corporation is the only 100 percent Japanese investment in the renewable energy industry in Sri Lanka and the only BOI-approved company with a 55-year agreement in the renewable energy industry.

The company will invest Rs.5 billion in Sri Lanka through this initiative and will provide employment to over 200 personnel at the outset, with a 200MW annual output capability. 

The company and investment are the brainchild of Pushpasiri Liyanage, who convinced his fellow directors at JSF to invest in Sri Lanka, who earlier considered to take the operation to Vietnam, Cambodia or Bangladesh. 

Through its investment, JSF brings in valuable foreign investment and technology to Sri Lanka, in addition to exchange savings and will serve as a significant source of support to the government’s ‘Soorya Bala Sangraamaya’ programme under the Power and Renewable Energy Ministry, to harness solar power to add 200MW of solar power to the national grid by 2020. 

JSF Corporation Directors include Masaaki Shibata, Hirokazu Murata, Yasuaki Horiuchi, Yoshinori Kagomoto, Masahiro Sunahata and Shintaro Fukuzono, who are stalwarts of Japanese enterprise and the renewable energy sector in the country, leading numerous large-scale solar projects in Japan and other regions. 

“The inauguration of JSF’s manufacturing plant in Sri Lanka is the culmination of a concerted process to attract cutting-edge Japanese technology and expertise in renewable energy. As we open the doors to our facility, we are privileged to become the pioneering manufacturer of solar panels in Sri Lanka and make way for the growth and adoption of advanced renewable energy solutions in the country, which presents the future of sustainability the world over,” averred JSF Corporation Director and Chief Executive Officer J.L.A.P. Liyanage. 

JSF will commence operations at the Katunayake Export Processing Zone on July 21, under the auspices of Power and Renewable Energy Minister Ranjith Siyambalapitiya, State Minister Ajith Perera and Japanese Ambassador Kenichi Suganuma.