Costa Rica receives only “green” energy for 75 days

Some countries have moved forward with renewable energy than others. For example, Costa Rica has been using only “green” energy from renewable sources for 75 days .

This was made possible thanks to a large amount of precipitation, as a result of which the country's hydroelectric power stations operate at full capacity all of 2015. Costa Rica has not yet used oil, gas or coal for energy this year. So far, enough of what the country receives from hydroelectric turbines. Geothermal energy, wind generators, biogas and solar radiation are also used.

As for hydroelectric power stations, there are two types of stations in the country: both conventional, “direct-flow” stations and pumped storage stations.



It is worth noting that Costa Rica is a small country. Its total area is 51,000 square kilometers. The total population is only 4.8 million people. In addition, there is practically no heavy industry (there are only a small number of mining enterprises and a few factories), the main areas are tourism and agriculture. The government has long been implementing a plan for switching to green energy, and we can say that this plan was successful. A little more, and the country's energy sector will not depend on coal, oil or gas at all.

Last year, about 80% of the energy generated in the country came from hydropower plants. Another 13% is geothermal energy. The rest, as mentioned above, is solar energy, wind energy, traditional energy, biogas plants.



In mid-2014, the government approved a plan to build a number of geothermal power plants, with a total budget of $ 958 million. The expected capacity of the first stations is 55 MW, with a price tag of $ 333 million. After a while, two more stations with a capacity of 50 MW will be built nearby.