Posted on 03/20/2015 5:27:46 AM PDT by thackney
Well done Costa Rica, well done.
The Cental American country has achieved a major clean energy milestone, meeting 100 percent of its power demand with renewable energy for 75 straight days.
“The year 2015 has been one of electricity totally friendly to the environment for Costa Rica,” the state-owned power supplier Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) said in a press release.
The ICE says the country's zero-emission milestone was enabled thanks to heavy rainfalls at four hydroelectric power facilities in the first quarter of 2015. These downpours have meant that, for the months of January, February and so far March, there has been no need to burn fossil fuels to generate electricity.
Instead, Costa Rica has been powered primarily by hydro power - both pumped storage and run-of-the-river plants - and a mixture of geothermal, wind, biomass and solar energy.
It’s important to remember that Costa Rica is a small nation. It has a total area of about 51,000 square kilometres, which is about half the size of the US state of Kentucky, and it has a population of only 4.8 million people. Furthermore, its primary industries are tourism and agriculture, rather than heavy, more energy-intensive industries such as mining or manufacturing.
Still, Costa Rica has done an excellent job developing it electricity sector, and supplying affordable, reliable power to its citizens.
According to the World Economic Forum’s 2014 Global Competitiveness Index, Costa Rica ranks second in Latin American countries behind only Uruguay with regards to electricty and telecommunications infrastructure.
Reporter Sophie Vorrath from RenewEconomy writes that the country is “providing a household coverage rate of 99.4 percent at some of the region’s lowest prices”.
Costa Rica’s record on renewable generation also stands out. As recently as last year, hydropower accounted for 80 percent of all electricity production, while geothermal energy was reported back in 2010 to account for upwards of 13 percent of the country’s electricity profile.
And new geothermal projects are in the pipeline to help the volcano-rich country capitalise further on this subterranean energy source.
In mid-2014, the Costa Rican government approved a US$958 million geothermal energy project. According to Jake Richardson from CleanTechnica, "the first plants are expected to generate about 55 MW and cost approximately $333 million to build", and two other 50 MW plants will also be built nearby.
It’s good news that more geothermal will be coming on board, as there are obvious downsides of being too reliant on hydropower, especially run-of-the-river systems, which can be hindered by seasonal changes in water flow. Droughts can also severely impact power supplies. And there are also some environmental downsides to hydroelectric dams more generally, namely the impact on riparian ecosystems and passing fish.
Nevertheless, 100 percent renewable energy generation, for any extended period of time, is an enviable achievement.
Good on you, Costa Rica!
Those steel mills down there must be just humming away!! :)
They must have weathered all that snow and freezing temps with no issues!
Good for them.
Hmmm, seems we destroyed most of our dams that produced hydroelectric energy because of the greenies. Then the rains came and we used MORE electricity to heat our electric dryers to dry our soaking wet clothes. Try hanging clothes on on old fasioned clothesline and hear the neighbors scream.
Yep, we’re committed to renewable energy, but only if taxpayer dollars go to some political crony.
Meanwhile in this country, the people who scream the loudest about our need for renewables are the same people happily tearing out dams.
We could really never achieve the same here because we’re a much larger country were available energy sources may not be nearby.
A lot of wealthy gringos power their villas with diesel generators. My friends there live in the hills were there are no power lines so they and their neighbors have to produce their own electricity.
the story mentioned Costa Rica’s primary industries are tourism and agriculture, not mining of manufacturing
then again, do you think the US still leads in steel production?? not for years. hell, we only get 2 mentions out of 38 in the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_steel_producers
Just think of all the Delta smelt they killed with their eeevil hydro dams. /s
hydro power - both pumped storage
I wonder what the pumps run on?
—have a couple of friends (married) who lived there for ten years in the cooler months—one of the primary reasons for leaving was that the power bill for a studio apartment had gone above $600/month, with them doing all the “power saving” they could—
My friend who just moved down there, says Costa Rica doesn’t have a lot of home solar ‘cause the regulations require the homeowner to PAY 3 cents a kW for all electricity sent to the grid. Obviously a fee like that makes home solar less attractive in terms of ROI.
He says the environmental label is mostly BS smoke and mirrors.
Until 1890 the United States could have made the same claim.
Right. But you get what I mean.
Typically, pumped storage is used to take "surplus" electric power and save it for later. In the US, we use it to take a fully loaded coal power plant and use it to "move" electrical generation from night when demand is low to daytime peak demands.
I don't see how that works when the power is generated by hydro, unless it is to move power generation from one area to another.
Uh huh....
Not that late, Edison’s Coal fired Pearl Street Station started in 1882.
exactly....because after all Costa Riva exports so much to the rest of the suffering world
There is no such thing as renewable energy.
Otherwise the laws of physics and thermodynamics have to be completely re-written.
Yep, that Costa Rica sure is a world military and industrial power. Definitely something for this country to strive for. The rest of the world will be so envious. People must just be beating down the borders to get into that place, its so wealthy and advanced.
Pumped water storage has the ability to store potential energy. If demand fluctuates it is sometimes easier to put excess energy production into storage rather than scaling back power output. This can reduce initial generation development costs.
Think of it as a really, really big rechargeable battery! Power storage, rather than production, is the biggest hurdle in our energy future.
Pumped storage is applicable to any (not just hydro) generation scheme as long as water and a variation in elevation is available. It can be a closed loop system that needs no additional water after it is installed.
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