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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

#261

Post by fernly »

The Wikipedia list of nations by renewable energy[0] mentions some others as high scorers. Sorting by %Renewable, the top are

* Albania 100

* DR of the Congo 100

* Iceland 100

* Paraguay 100

* Namibia 99.3

* Costa Rica 97.7

All of these are small countries with relatively small total power quantities. Not to say it isn't a praiseworthy achievement to get to, or near, 100% renewable at any quantity. But if you sort the table on Total GWhr of RE, they are far down the list. The runaway winner in quantity of renewable generation is China, with the US, Brazil and Canada fighting for fourth place.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_renewable...

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

#262

Post by dane-pgp »

goatlover wrote: post #234
jjk166 wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but what happens if nobody has a standing army? The moment someone has a standing army, we are, by definition, no longer in a situation where nobody has a standing army. If someone can magically instantaneously create an army, then Costa Rica should just do that the moment they're threatened.

The issue is that while someone is building an army, the rest of the world might stand by and do nothing in hopes that the army won't be used, via appeasement and negotiation, particularly if the world's culture is strongly set against having armies. At least until the aggressor starts conquering. That's how it tends to play out historically, so countries and kingdoms go to the trouble and expense of having standing…

> particularly if the world's culture is strongly set against having armies.

If the world's culture is strongly set against having armies, and one country effectively threatens them by breaking that taboo, then I would at least expect the world to instantly cease all trade and transport links with the arming country.

That may not be enough on its own to force the taboo-breaking country to disarm, but I don't see any contradiction in a world culture which is against having armies while also ruthlessly dedicated to temporarily re-arming and exterminating the first country that breaks the taboo.

There are hard coordination and rule of law / presumption of innocence questions to solve there, but I don't think we can necessarily assume that this world culture will stand idly by while their enemy works to undo the very thing that defines the culture.

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

#263

Post by beebeepka »

MomoXenosaga wrote: post #207
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…

No military. When the Dutch government gave independence to their South American colony of Suriname they advised it: do not create a military. Military in South/Middle America= failure.

But why does having an army fail these countries?

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

#264

Post by groby_b »

azernik wrote: post #230
groby_b wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fascinating thing is that the "well the bad guys could form an army" argument sounds logical, but really isn't. You can't secretly recruit and train several 100,000 people. The closest we've ever come to seeing this happen in real time was probably with German rearmament in the 20s and 30s, and they were telegraphing for decades what they were doing. It does however raise the other problem - if people are willing…

Germany is actually a very illustrative example. They started remilitarization in earnest in 1933, Britain and France started around 1936, and those few years of head start let Germany trounce everyone around for the first few years of WWII despite their inferior industrial base.

That's ignoring the Free Corps, though. There was a lot of staffing up via paramilitaries. (Sort of like piling all your armies into Australia in Risk ;)

And I think it's worth calling out that Britain and France deliberately slowed down as a result of appeasement policies, not because they missed that Germany was rearming. That's what I meant in the GP post when I said "people willing to stand by and ignore obviously bad actors"

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

#265

Post by groby_b »

fastball wrote: post #216
groby_b wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fascinating thing is that the "well the bad guys could form an army" argument sounds logical, but really isn't. You can't secretly recruit and train several 100,000 people. The closest we've ever come to seeing this happen in real time was probably with German rearmament in the 20s and 30s, and they were telegraphing for decades what they were doing. It does however raise the other problem - if people are willing…

Alas with modern warfare you don't need 100k people in order to curb-stomp the unmilitarized competition. I am certain the US for instance could easily make nukes with no other country knowing about it, and that's with all the people in the US who would scream that from the rooftops if they knew. Or you could get even more creative: make a virus in a lab, develop a vaccine / cure, vaccinate your population, release t…

You don't "easily make nukes". They require an incredibly large industrial infrastructure to support them.

And it's worth pointing out that bioweapons are not a problem that can be fixed with a standing army. (Again, not touching the fact that a BSL4 lab specializing in weaponized agents is not something that just escapes notice). And I'm terribly sorry, but the idea that you can vaccinate an entire population without anybody noticing is just flat out ridiculous.

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

#266

Post by perrygeo »

fasteddie31003 wrote: post #108
tohmasu wrote: post #80

70-80% Hydro [~90% Hydro+Geothermal]. ~10% wind and almost no PV. It's important to keep in mind that wind and solar aren't really a part of this success story.

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.

Most implementations of hydroelectric power involve cutting off and severely degrading the habitat of aquatic life, both upstream and downstream. Societies depend on these resources so it's hard to justify calling hydro power sustainable in a general sense. To those negatively impacted by the dam, it rightly feels like a ruthless power grab by outsiders coming to steal water and energy without any thought for the livelihoods that are destroyed.

Of course hydro power can be done correctly, assuming the collaboration of all the stakeholders in the watershed and careful tradeoffs. How many dams were built with such an equitable process?

Given hydro power's well-documented negative impacts, and our arsenal of other truly renewable energy sources, damming new rivers should be a last resort. In the US at least there is a strong trend of dam removal - many ill-considered hydro projects are costly to maintain, an economic loss to society as a whole, and a detriment to the environment. Quite far from any feasible definition of "renewable resource".

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

#267

Post by yesenadam »

rm_-rf_slash wrote: post #192
pier25 wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Systems of exploitation tend to be durable and adaptable over time, producing similar outcomes even if the overall shape appears to change drastically. Yes, because the fundamental problem is changing the culture, not the "shape". In Mexico (the example I know first hand) corruption is definitely a cultural problem. It happens at all levels because it is culturally acceptable to bend/ignore the rules for personal g…

A film you may find interesting if you haven’t seen it is the Brazilian crime thriller “Tropa de Elite 2 – O Inimigo Agora é Outro”, which not wishing to spoil anything, was a fascinating exploration of how systems of corruption can remain even as everyone involved gets moved out; the vacuum is filled as quickly as it’s made. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_Squad:_The_Enemy_Withi...

That is the sequel to Tropa de Elite (2007), by the same director, Jose Padilha. I strongly recommend watching Tropa de Elite first.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0861739/

The same director's documentary Bus 174 (2002) is even much more intense and unforgettable.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340468/

He also created the amazing series The Mechanism (2018-), based on the Operation Car Wash investigations, during the last 10 years, into corruption in Brazil.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6873658/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Car_Wash

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

#268

Post by trainsplanes »

fernly wrote: post #261

The Wikipedia list of nations by renewable energy[0] mentions some others as high scorers. Sorting by %Renewable, the top are * Albania 100 * DR of the Congo 100 * Iceland 100 * Paraguay 100 * Namibia 99.3 * Costa Rica 97.7 All of these are small countries with relatively small total power quantities. Not to say it isn't a praiseworthy achievement to get to, or near, 100% renewable at any quantity. But if you sort th…

The Democratic Republic of the Congo is a massive country with 90 million people and an area about 4x as big as Texas. That's a very impressive achievement.

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

#269

Post by fastball »

groby_b wrote: post #265
fastball wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alas with modern warfare you don't need 100k people in order to curb-stomp the unmilitarized competition. I am certain the US for instance could easily make nukes with no other country knowing about it, and that's with all the people in the US who would scream that from the rooftops if they knew. Or you could get even more creative: make a virus in a lab, develop a vaccine / cure, vaccinate your population, release t…

You don't "easily make nukes". They require an incredibly large industrial infrastructure to support them. And it's worth pointing out that bioweapons are not a problem that can be fixed with a standing army. (Again, not touching the fact that a BSL4 lab specializing in weaponized agents is not something that just escapes notice). And I'm terribly sorry, but the idea that you can vaccinate an entire population withou…

> You don't "easily make nukes".

I didn't say anyone can, I said the US can. Even if the US "demilitarized", we could definitely still easily make nukes.

> And it's worth pointing out that bioweapons are not a problem that can be fixed with a standing army.

I never said standing army, I was clear about using demilitarized/militarized. You could use cyber security as another example – a country with a standing army is of course not going to help against a cyber offensive. However a country with cyber defenses...

> but the idea that you can vaccinate an entire population without anybody noticing is just flat out ridiculous.

The US vaccinates its population against the flu every year.

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

#270

Post by ncmncm »

ctdonath wrote: post #206
jjk166 wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So would you describe the Maginot line as a good investment?

Obviously not. Germany noticed lines have ends, and just went around.

Also, they went around it using, in large part, Czech armor they took when they invaded Sudetenland.
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