progress report no. 4 – COSTA RICA: BIG NEWS FROM A LITTLE COUNTRY AND A LESSON THAT CAN MAKE US ALL BREATHE EASIER

A little country with big changes and bigger vision, Costa Rica has become a resort nation. People from all over the world are buying homes and condos. It has superb weather.
It has something else, a green new deal and a green thumb. Costa Rica, like Ethiopia (subject of last month’s “Alternate Energy”), is geologically uniquely situated for renewable energy, in particular, its water reserves. Also like Ethiopia, Costa Rica has volcanoes, six active ones and several that are silent. It has coastal waters on each of it sides, and its tropical climate provides an abundance of rain water and of sunshine.
So what does this all translate into? Costa Rica is transforming itself into an alternate energy role model. It provides nearly 100 percent of it electricity from renewable sources. At one point, Costa Rica went 300 days without using any fossil fuel to produce electricity.

Rising from the political ashes
Costa Rica has been a nation in turmoil. In 1948 after several regime changes and the public having had enough, Costa Rica’s military went the way of the scrap yard in lieu of vast social and infrastructural change. In that process, Costa Rica evolved into a nation that clearly advanced technologically.
Welcome to the leadership of Carlos Alvardo Quesada and his wife Claudia Dobles and the Costa Rica legislature. The government of Costa Rica since 1948 has converted its military to a civil defense unit. This freed up money for investing in hydroelectric projects and reforestation, then to fund solar and wind projects. Costa Rica has reclaimed nearly 50% of its deforestation and is continuing to do so. It has a policy that enables as many geothermal, solar, and wind energy projects as possible. It has an end goal of being carbon neutral by 2021. If that isn’t enough, Costa Rica plans to be off fossil fuels by 2050.

Wonder woman
Claudia Dobles is Costa Rica’s urban planner. She is preparing the country’s infrastructure to handle larger volumes of traffic, water, sewer and electric and other civic needs. Her vision is to build an infrastructure to accommodate electric vehicles in the future.
All this is under the National Decarbonization Plan, which she envisions accommodating electric passenger vehicles as well as electric freight trains, all by 2022. The next step is to have one-third of all passenger buses be electric by 2035 and all vehicles electric by 2050. She also is working to regulate the growth of agribusinesses in a progressive way. She is working to build in composting facilities to turn waste into fuel.

Naturally blessed
Costa Rica, Spanish for “Rich Coast,” is rich, too, for its renewable energy. The national symbol shows two shores with a mountain range in between. It is the right size with the right population. It has substantial coastline for its given land area, perfect for wind power. It has significant rainfall and natural reservoirs for making hydroelectric power. It has six active volcanoes and over 20 inactive ones that can facilitate geothermal energy for producing electricity.
Its western coast has a solar index that nearly matches Arizona (which, by the way is Spanish for “Arid Zone”). Nearly half of the country is ripe for solar energy. Fortunately, Costa Rica expansion comes at a time when the tools to harvest the different power streams are highly advanced. Wind turbine design is highly developed, solar infrastructure is actually maturing, geothermal construction has made significant improvements in efficiency and safety. This may have not been so if the movement to renewables began 40 years ago.
No matter how naturally available, no matter how altruistic conversion to alternate energy, it may have very well been cost prohibitive. So it is sort of like a perfect storm (or calm) of serendipitous events to make it possible as well as the moral fortitude for a small country to do the right thing.

Origins of Costa Rican hydropower
Costa Rica, since its “rebirth” in 1948, used its vast resources of water to initially create national flood control. In that process, the Costa Rican government became aware of the vast potential of hydroelectric power. Hydroelectric done right is by far the most reliable and cost effective way of producing power. Nearly 80 percent of its power is produced from hydroelectric.

Geothermal
The high level of volcanic activity makes geothermal power production a natural.
Twelve percent of the nation’s electricity is produced by geothermal, which must be approached cautiously. It could open a Pandora’s box of problems if not properly researched. Having as many active volcanoes in such a small area means that vigilance and care must be in place before exploiting this resource.
Today 13 percent of Costa Rica electricity comes from geothermal energy.

Wind and solar
Wind and solar provide only 7% of the total electricity. The problem with solar and wind is logistical. San Jose, the capital city, and its surrounding area contain the main concentration of population, which is in the center of the country. Since the most optimal wind power is on the coasts, and the solar index is most favorable on the west coast this means that the produced energy has a long way to travel, calling for expensive long power lines and towers and the associated power losses. This makes the geothermal and hydroelectric energy more cost effective.
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Conclusion
If I had a hero, Ms. Dobles is it as far as alternate energy! It is not often that those in a political position actually do what they have promised or what is the right thing to do. While our President advocates coal and ignores the potential environmental damage as well as the social responsibility to control emission and pollution, Costa Rica is truly blessed in its timely and natural renewable resources, it is also blessed in its leaders’ stewardship.

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