Costa Rica has powered itself using only renewable energy

[Jazzy]

Costa Rica may be a small country, but going 75 days straight using only renewable energy is worthy of recognition.

Thanks to heavy rainfall powering four hydroelectric plants, no fossil fuels have been burnt to generate electricity since December 2014.

According to the state-run Costa Rican Electricity Institute, 80 percent of the country’s energy came from hydropower and 10 percent came from geothermal energy in 2014.

But the current streak of using only renewable energy represents a milestone for the Central American country and though the government concedes that unexpectedly heavy rainfall made it possible, new geothermal projects are in place to try and make 100 percent clean energy possible year-round.

Jake Richardson of Clean Technica told Science Alert that investing in geothermal energy was a must for Costa Rica because of the unpredictability of water flow.

‘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,’ he said.

‘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.’

Costa Rica aims to be carbon-neutral by 2021, and its government has opted not to exploit rich oil deposits found along its coast for environmental reasons.

Source

Thoughts?

 

[beowulf]

good for them, shows it can be done

 

[Evil Eye]

Saves 'em some coal, good for them.

 

[Raven]

Other countries should be learning from them.

 

[callie8]

Other countries should be learning from them.

Agreed