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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

#61

Post by DennisP »

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 not the case. No country has run on a high percentage of wind/solar/battery for a long period of time.

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

#62

Post by 34679 »

sjm wrote: post #50
nicoburns wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

From your link:

Tensions between government and the opposition, supported by the CIA, caused the short-lived Costa Rican Civil War of 1948 that ended Calderón's government and led to the short de facto rule of 18 months by José Figueres Ferrer.

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

#63

Post by megabless123 »

leesalminen wrote: post #17
belval wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've read about expats praising Costa Rica for its low costs and beautiful properties that foreigners can buy. How was your experience there?

It took about 2 months of us being there to pull the trigger and buy a house. Costs for most things are low, except for cars. Cars are insanely expensive due to the ~50% import tax. Electricity is also fairly expensive per KWH. The people are very nice and generally welcoming to foreigners. You never run out of things to do, either. There’s always another adventure to explore. Fiber internet is accessible in most are…

how about the weather and climate?

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

#64

Post by reubenswartz »

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…

Aside from the many interesting answers in this thread, one thing that struck me when I visited was someone telling me that the terrain was more mountainous than some of the countries to the north, making the plantation economy that the Spanish installed less profitable, so you didn't have as much of the aristocracy/serf divide. This tends to lead to healthier political systems...

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

#66

Post by onethought »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #36
JohnHaugeland wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's a complete fiction, if you bother to look

https://www.electricitymap.org/zone/CR?wind=false&solar=fals... (Electricitymap.org: Costa Rica) 2.36GW of total hydro generating capacity, 595MW of wind, and 1.64GW of geothermal, as well as interconnectors with Panama and Nicaragua to export excess renewables generation (or import when in nation generation isn't meeting consumption). With CR's favorable geography for hydro, it'd make a lot of sense for central amer…

What do you mean Tasmania’s hydro is used as a big battery?

My understanding is it barely provides enough electricity for the state, and the interconnect is used to consume power from Victoria 99% of the time

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

#67

Post by shadowgovt »

lesterzone wrote: post #21
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…

Costa Rican resident here. Costa Rica invest a lot in renewables. Tourism is a huge income. There are lots of places to visit. Hundreds of volcanoes, 7 active. The climate, it can rain and then sunny...several times a day. Costa Rica exports technology. Intel, MS,Google...Several start ups...lots of outsourcing jobs.

Had the honor of visiting years ago. It really is a gorgeous country.

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

#68

Post by newsclues »

wil421 wrote: post #35
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.

A lot of people in Costa Rica have generators on standby for blackouts and brown outs.

Battery backups as well?

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

#69

Post by mavhc »

jeffbee wrote: post #41
NortySpock wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Would be good for those 5 second brownouts though

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

#70

Post by maxleaf »

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…

What are you talking about? If AOC and Gov. Brown are confident we can get to 100% renewable energy, then we can. Batteries will solve all the issues you mentioned and 100% renewable we go!
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