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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

#41

Post by jeffbee »

NortySpock wrote: post #31
leesalminen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live part-time in Costa Rica. Brownouts occur 1-4x every day. It’s usually just a few seconds and not all that bad. The worst part is when you have to restart the dishwasher.

Seems like an opportunity for a massive battery system similar to the Hornsdale Power Reserve in Australia that Tesla pulled out all the stops for.

"Massive" Honsdale battery is capable of supplying much less than 1% of grid power in Australia. An installation of that size could help at the margins to prevent some brownout events, but don't overestimate the capacity of batteries compared to grid demand. It looks like Costa Rica has about 3600 MW of generating capacity. The Hornsdale battery is good for 150 MW.

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

#42

Post by ohgodplsno »

bb101 wrote: post #9

Where did Costa Rica go so right ? In the news it always appears to be a bastion of moderation and success, especially when compared to its neighbours.

The US never installed a puppet dictator in Costa Rica or enforced embargos, as opposed to all its neighbours.

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

#43

Post by [deleted] »

awakeasleep wrote: post #24
BitwiseFool wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costa Rica is a small nation with favorable geography, a great balance of population and density with some fantastic externalities that let them focus on domestic affairs.

Also, while its nice, its not especially wealthy, nor situated in a way to become an important geopolitical chess-piece.

[deleted]

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

#44

Post by darzu »

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…

They also invested early in preserving their nature and establishing parks. Additionally, all their beaches are public. It’s illegal to build a fence on the ocean. These have contributed to large tourism income.

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

#45

Post by toomanybeersies »

RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #4

> Because of that, the country has an abundance of geothermal renewable sources that account for much of the necessary energy to make the country successfully function. >Also, Costa Rica can get a lot of rain. With consistent rainfall, their hydroelectric plants can produce a plethora of energy. While wind and solar get most of the headlines, it seems that geothermal and hydroelectric are actually more useful in goin…

Practically everywhere that it's possible to put a hydro dam, there's already a hydro dam.

Traditionally it's been one of the most cost effective and technologically simple sources of electricity, only in more recent years have other sources such as PV solar started to edge it out.

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

#47

Post by mikeyouse »

JohnHaugeland wrote: post #19
leesalminen wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live part-time in Costa Rica. Brownouts occur 1-4x every day. It’s usually just a few seconds and not all that bad. The worst part is when you have to restart the dishwasher.

four brownouts a day is an instant kill for industry despite that you're okay with it, most heavy users of power aren't the reason they're omitting this from the reporting is that the reporting just isn't true

Depends entirely on the length of the brownouts and the type of industry, there are long-proven fallback and standby options that can smooth out temporary blips (or just clean dirty power in general) that allow 'industry' to work just about anywhere in the world. The bigger issue in Costa Rica is that they aren't actively courting heavy industry, so their power is very expensive for commercial users -- nearly $0.20/kWh compared to half that rate in a place like Mexico or Colombia, or more like $0.05/kWh in Texas.

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

#48

Post by wwweston »

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…

IIRC part of the answer is that they had a successful revolution led by principled people who realized that cultural capital is just as important as power and in fact maybe keeping a standing army had problems.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Figueres_Ferrer

https://www.spanishpuravida.com/why-costa-rica-has-no-army/

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

#50

Post by sjm »

nicoburns wrote: post #25
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…

Not pissing off the United States? My understanding is that most Central and some South American countries have had their governments intentionally destabilised by the US because they were perceived as too left wing.

This has to be a huge part and it's sad but not surprising that you're being downvoted here. Almost every other country in Latin America has either been invaded by the US, or has gone through US-backed coups, economic sanctions during the cold war, etc.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_r...

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