Costa Rica is one of the leading countries when it comes to renewable energy use and this week they have smashed it again. The Central American country has managed to run the entire country for 76 days straight on 100 percent renewable energy sources. It’s not the first time Costa Rica have produced results that the rest of the world should envy. Last year they managed 300 days in total and 150 so far this year, but 76 in one go is pretty amazing!
Most of this renewable energy comes from hydropower and geothermal power so the fact that they have seen some really heavy rain this year has certainly helped. Cost Rica does come as a hard act to follow, and they are not free of fossil fuels entirely. They still have more than 1 million cars on the road that are run by traditional gasoline, and they still have cement plants that burn coal too. But, they have still proved that it is possible to achieve 100 percent renewable energy power for the whole country, and hopefully, others will soon follow suit.
While most of Costa Rica’s renewable energy comes from the hydroelectric dams, around 12 percent comes from geothermal plants and the remainder comes from the wind (around 7 percent), and then a small amount of biomass and solar. They are a fine example of how well a country can perform using renewable energy forms alone and are aiming to become carbon-neutral by 2021. The country’s biggest challenge here will be in the name of cars. EV’s are still relatively expensive for a developing country like Costa Rica, so it may instead concentrate on promoting walking, cycling and electric public transport methods instead.
Costa Rica does have an advantage of being in a great location for hydropower and geothermal power whereas other countries do not have the same luxuries. In the United States, only 7 percent of renewable energy comes from hydropower as most of its rivers are already dammed up. As a total, hydropower supplies around 16 percent of the world’s total electricity because of each countries geographical location, so for these countries, they will need to concentrate more on the wind and solar power. So although all countries can’t do it exactly how Costa Rica has, they have demonstrated that it is at least possible, and now it is down to the others to find their own ways to become powered by 100 percent renewable energy.
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