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4-inch solar cell. Source: Wikimedia Commons
Businesspeople from across major industries in Costa Rica met on Tuesday, September 2nd to outline a plan to promote the use of electricity generated by solar energy. The rising costs of electricity in Costa Rica are being cited as the main cause of an ongoing loss of competitive edge in the modern concept of trade and global business.
The Costa Rica Chamber of Industries (Spanish initials: CICR) celebrated a Congress on Solar and Photovoltaic Energy, which seeks to “promote awareness and increase knowledge within managers, administrators, engineers, and all others who are involved with decision-making insofar as electricity in the business sector” about alternative energy sources, particularly the Sun.
According to an article recently published by online news daily Informa-Tico.com, CICR Chairman Enrique Egloff stated that:
“We must seek the Sun as an alternative because, although it may not be 100 percent constant and reliable, it is -to a certain extent- free. We can combine solar energy with other energy sources in order to deal with the unstoppable increases in electricity and so that we can ensure that we can power our industries regardless of climate change.”
Aside from the CICR, representatives from the Ministry of the Environment and Energy (Spanish acronym: MINAE) and from the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (Spanish initials: ICE) were also in attendance.
According to the CICR, Costa Rica has great potential for the expansion of solar energy. A study commissioned by the CICR and conducted by researchers from the Technical University of Munich indicates that our country has a good profile for solar energy implementation thanks to irradiation (the amount of constant and effective sun rays) that is superior to that of Germany, which leads the world in terms of solar energy technology and practical us thereof.
The cost of electricity in Costa Rica has climbed vertiginously over the last few years despite having mostly hydroelectric production. Electricity here is the most expensive in Central America; paradoxically, the price of fossil fuels is also the highest in the region.
