Costa Rica Has Run on 100% Renewable Electricity for 299 Days • Hacker News Board

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

#81

Post by ajdude » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:34 PM UTC

maxleaf wrote: post #70

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!

And in fact the battery method has been proven to work to solve Australia's power issue (thanks Elon!).

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

#82

Post by foobarian » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:35 PM UTC

bberenberg wrote: post #8

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…

I believe one of the reasons is they don't have defense spending per-se. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Force_of_Costa_Rica#His... They let the US handle all of that for them, and they spend funds on power. This isn't to say that they're an infrastructure paradise. A region I visited had poor roads and internet connectivity.

Reminds me of an old communist joke/jab at the capitalists' expense:

"A small African country's cabinet is meeting to come up with solutions for the bleak economic situation. One minister says: 'I know! Let's declare war on the United States! After they invade us they will have to support us.' Everyone murmurs in agreement at the clever plan. However one last minister is not convinced and says: 'But... what if we win?'"

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

#83

Post by afterburner » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

trefgin wrote: post #49

The thing that really pisses me off is that governments in the past worked SO HARD to argue that renewable energy could never work.

Corporate lobbying

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

#84

Post by toomanybeersies » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:37 PM UTC

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…

There's proposals to build a giant pumped storage hydro scheme in Tassie [1], which would literally make it a "big battery".

[1] https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/battery-of-the-nation

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

#85

Post by warlog » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

jokoon wrote: post #59

This the classic, usual kind of misleading news about renewable energy. Keep dreaming, hoping and advocating for renewables, but it's just not the solution. Nuclear is the only viable solution.

Agreed. And: where do the concrete, steel and electronic components to build and service these "energy sources" come from? ...not "renewable". But don't let accurate counting get in the way of accounting(tm).

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

#86

Post by rytcio » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:38 PM UTC

maxleaf wrote: post #70

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!

AOC is not exactly someone I would trust to have deep knowledge about this topic

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

#87

Post by tohmasu » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:40 PM UTC

trefgin wrote: post #49

The thing that really pisses me off is that governments in the past worked SO HARD to argue that renewable energy could never work.

What government would that be? Hydro has been a mainstay for 70+ years.

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

#88

Post by toomuchtodo » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

toomanybeersies wrote: post #84

toomuchtodo wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

There's proposals to build a giant pumped storage hydro scheme in Tassie [1], which would literally make it a "big battery". [1] https://www.hydro.com.au/clean-energy/battery-of-the-nation

I poorly communicated the idea in that part of my comment to be honest, my apologies. It's currently a battery in the sense that it exports during the wet season and imports from VIC during the dry season. As mentioned, it'd be a "proper battery" where it can "charge" from renewables (or, dreadfully, fossil) with the link you and I provided in this subthread.

Hydro resources are an important component of future grids, as long duration battery storage is pricey (although short duration storage such as Tesla's install at the Hornsdale Power Reserve is critical for ancillary services like frequency response and synthetic inertia, to keep frequency and voltage within tolerances when a thermal generator trips or renewables drop offline).

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

#89

Post by tzamora » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

DoreenMichele wrote: post #53

This is great news. It makes me wonder if their homes or other buildings skew towards vernacular design and/or passive solar design.

No, we don't have any special design for our homes. It's just that we have lots of energy for our small country, all from our hydro plants and our volcanos, we have so much energy that we sell it to 6 more countries in the central America region.

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

#90

Post by chacha2 » Wed, Jun 23, 2021, 3:42 PM UTC

bequanna wrote: post #71

fukd wrote: post #65

People should never forget that green energry is not 100% green and embrace minimalism

Ah, right. If only we all would have embraced minimalism from the very start! There would be no need for these pesky warm houses, abundant food, or relatively cheap medicine.

Won't have that stuff in an ice age.