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Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

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Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#161

Post by DoreenMichele »

leesalminen wrote: post #154
DoreenMichele wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for replying Vernacular design is just very localized design using local materials and suited to local weather. It's like adobe homes in the American Southwest and igloos in Alaska. What is a typical home like there? How are they heated and cooled?

Our house in Costa Rica was built with cinder blocks on a concrete pad. Very different from the wooden framing + drywall in my house in the US. My house doesn’t have any heating but does have mini-split AC units in the bedroom that we usually run for 3 hours in the afternoon if someone is going to sleep in that room. There is a concept of having a ceiling fan next to some windows at the top of the wall near the roof.…

Ceiling fans used like that is an old fashioned method that was common in the Deep South of the US before AC, I believe. I would say that fits with what I am talking about.

Thank you for replying.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#162

Post by DoreenMichele »

tzamora wrote: post #156
DoreenMichele wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for replying Vernacular design is just very localized design using local materials and suited to local weather. It's like adobe homes in the American Southwest and igloos in Alaska. What is a typical home like there? How are they heated and cooled?

Here we have a very non extreme weather, so no cooling and no heating needed at all in our homes, we use steel rods, concrete blocks and concrete all according to the anti-seismic codes here and we also use protection for the humidity. The dangers we have from a climate point of view are storms that make our rivers overflow and causes lots of damage to our towns.

Thank you. If there is no "need" for heat or cooling, likely there is some degree of vernacular architecture and passive solar design going on. It's just so normal you likely don't realize it is any different from how homes get built elsewhere and lifestyles elsewhere.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#163

Post by shawndrost »

walshemj wrote: post #157
fasteddie31003 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California does not consider hydro to be renewable, so according to California law Costa Rica has not been running on renewable energy. This is to point out California needs to redefine hydro into a renewable resource.

Why ? is there a stated reason

Because of ecosystem and water footprint impacts associated with dams, in conjunction with the operational requirements of power generation. Dams obviously convert a river into a lake and impede/alter natural migratory patterns. Less obviously, hydroelectric power generation dictates a pattern of water release that is at odds with other demands on water usage, for human and natural usage purposes. (You can imagine that downstream environments might benefit from water flow which is more steady, or which follows natural rhythms; this is in conflict to some degree with grid demand for power.)

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#164

Post by [deleted] »

DennisP wrote: post #61

We really need two words for renewables: one for types that scale but don't provide power on demand (wind, solar), and the other for types that provide power on demand but aren't available at scale everywhere (hydro, geothermal). Costa Rica is blessed with plenty of the second type and uses it. Because we lump it all into "renewables," it sounds like it should be easy for everyone to follow their example, and that's…

[deleted]

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#166

Post by hguant »

gpt5 wrote: post #130
DennisP wrote: post #61

We really need two words for renewables: one for types that scale but don't provide power on demand (wind, solar), and the other for types that provide power on demand but aren't available at scale everywhere (hydro, geothermal). Costa Rica is blessed with plenty of the second type and uses it. Because we lump it all into "renewables," it sounds like it should be easy for everyone to follow their example, and that's…

Isn't geothermal theoretically available everywhere?

Some available is more available than others

I believe that the issue is that the Earth's crust isn't uniformly thick, and that there are places where one could drill for miles without reaching magma/suitable heat sources, and other places (Costa Rica and Iceland come to mind) where the suitable heat sources are essentially on the surface.

Or, looking at it another way - oil drilling happens all over the globe and "hitting magma" isn't really a risk they're concerned about because it's so deep, that even the industry concerned with drilling too greedily and too deep doesn't intersect with it.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#167

Post by pier25 »

gamegoblin wrote: post #115
belval wrote: post #3

Is there an easy answer as to why Costa Rica is doing so well? They seem to be a bit of an exception in Central/South America. EDIT: From Wikipedia "It is known for its long-standing and stable democracy, and for its highly educated workforce, most of whom speak English. The country spends roughly 6.9% of its budget (2016) on education, compared to a global average of 4.4%. Its economy, once heavily dependent on agri…

The book "Why Nations Fail" and the followup by the same authors "The Narrow Corridor" paints a fairly convincing picture that the success or failure of many modern Latin American countries is directly correlated with the extent to which the Spanish colonialists were able to enslave/subjugate the indigenous population, and the types of societies and institutions that followed that initial seed. For example, in modern…

I haven't read those books, but a priori it sounds like cherry picking.

Mexico for example had a revolution which gave the land to the people and is a country that, over a century later, is still struggling with corruption, ignorance, superstition, etc.

I've been living in Mexico for 12 years and IMO it all comes down to poor education like the grandparent comment by belval suggested.

As an example, take the current Mexican government who was largely put in power by the lower classes. Instead of investing into education and social programs, is putting all its eggs into the oil basket.

Edit:

BTW I'm not arguing that more expenditure in education results in better education.

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#169

Post by jjk166 »

HideousKojima wrote: post #146
jjk166 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as you can raise an army at some future point in time should the need arise, this issue seems moot. It's inefficient to maintain a standing army when it is unnecessary.

>So long as you can raise an army at some future point in time should the need arise, this issue seems moot. By the time you could cobble together an army any modern military would have already conquered you, especially if you have super strict civilian firearm laws like Costa Rica that make putting together defensive militias much, much harder.

But no one else has a standing army in this scenario so there is no such modern military that can conquer you before you can remilitarize. The moment one country starts militarizing in a world without militaries, you know their intentions and can start remilitarizing to counter.

But let's say Costa Rica had a standing army - are they going to stop that modern military from conquering them? Probably not, so why waste money on a half assed defense?

Re: Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days

#170

Post by itissid »

Why is a country not able to come out of poverty post colonialism? Some have succeeded like the East Asian "Tiger" economies some haven't like India and Bangladesh, yet. Like everything its a confluence of factors.

Costa Rica is an outlier but perhaps it's only because of success of policy. To make an industry flourish and provide gainful employment(like the IT and Services sector in Costa Rica) you need Labor or Capital. In india for example the manufacturing industry is badly hobbled with lack of capital availability and poor labor laws an exception being the IT Services Sector where laws were written specifically to exempt them of such onerous regulation and capital is available more freely.

Perhaps with the sparse population and good Services Sector and Tourism is a happy path to prosperity for Costa Rica, but for other Central American countries like Guatemala or El Salvador it's harder because the right conditions have never been allowed to take root.

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