Costa Rica ran on 100% renewable energy for 150 days so far in 2016
Costa Rica ran on 100% renewable energy for 76 straight days from June 16 to September 2 this year, according to the Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE). This is the second time in two years that the Central American country has run for more than two months straight on renewables alone, bringing the 2016 total to 150 days so far.
The country’s National Center for Energy Control (CENCE), said that the last day in this year when fossil fuels-based energy was used by the national grid was on June 16.
The country has been powered on a mix of hydro, geothermal, wind, and solar energy, with hydro power providing about 80.27% of the total electricity in the month of August. Geothermal plants supplied around 12.62% of electricity generation in August, while wind turbines contributed 7.1%, and solar 0.01%.
The country was able to go 299 days last year without burning oil, coal, or natural gas with the help of heavy rainfalls at the country’s four hydroelectric power facilities.
Costa Rica’s success can be largely attributed to the country’s physical size and the population’s power consumption. It has a total area of about 51,000 sq km, which is about half the size of the US state of Kentucky, and has a population of just 4.9 million people.
According to a July report from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the country only generated around 10,713 Gwh (gigawatt-hours) of electricity in 2015. In contrast, data from the US Energy Information Administration showed that the US generated roughly 4 million Gwh of total generation in 2015, which is about 373 times more than that of Costa Rica.
In addition to the country’s size and population, it also helped that Costa Rica’s primary industries are agriculture and tourism rather than more energy-consuming industries like manufacturing or mining.
According to Carlos Manuel Obregón, the executive president of ICE, the country will be able to enjoy more months of carbon-free power once ICE’s massive Reventazón hydroelectric project comes online this month after six years of construction.
As the largest public infrastructure project in Central America after the Panama Canal, the Revantazón’s five turbines will have a generating capacity of 305.5 MW (megawatts), enough to power around 525,000 homes.
The project will bring “stable and renewable energy for the benefit of all sectors in the country,” Obregón said in the ICE press release.