The National Electric System (SEN) will sum at the end of 2020 its sixth consecutive year generating over 98% of renewable energy. The data provided by the Center of Energy Control (CENCE) also confirms that during the pandemic the electric consumption went down 3%. The energy that comes from the fuel is the lowest since 1986, this year it represented only 23.73 gigabytes hour, in addition to...

Since 2015 Costa Rica has surpassed 98% of clean energy generation, according to data from the National Center of Energy Control (CENCE); this will not be the exception for 2019 despite the dry conditions that have affected the region; so far, this percentage reaches 98.4%. This achievement involves the participation of 100 plants of the national electric park operated by the Costa Rican Electr...

Carlos Roldán an investigator of the Costa Rican Technology Institute is promoting a referendum to vote the “Law of Exploitation of National Energy Resources” which would allow the exploration and exploitation of petroleum and natural gas in Costa Rica. The recollection of signatures began this week. A total of 5% of the electoral registry, 168,667 signatures are needed to call the national ref...

Costa Rica inaugurated this Saturday, March 30 its biggest solar energy generation park yet, the Cooperative Solar Park (Parque Solar Corporativo), located in the area of Pocosol in San Carlos. This park will benefit close to 5,000 families of the North Zone of the country; it has 19,000 devices to capture solar energy in an extension of 11.2 hectares that will produce 5 MW, guaranteeing the qu...

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) will be forced to put the Las Pailas Geothermal Plant into production earlier than expected due to the dry conditions affecting the country. Las Pailas II has 55 megawatts of installed capacity and its incorporation into the National Electric System is now programmed for May instead of June. The first trimester of the year has presented atypical we...

Costa Rica will host the Pan-American Marine Energy Conference (PAMEC-2020), January 26 through January 29, 2020, an event where experts will be able to present and discuss results of the most diverse investigations on energy of waves, swells, currents, thermal gradients and wind. Investigators, researches and businessmen of the sector of non-conventional areas, consultants and other members of...

Geothermal Project Las Pailas II is currently in an intense testing phase to be included into the National Electric System (SEN) and generate sustainable electricity before the conclusion of the first semester of 2019, by the end of November 2018 its construction advance was of over 93%. ¨This final lap has the objective of putting to work the equipment and the systems of the geothermal field, ...

This week Costa Rica accumulated a total of 300 days of 100% renewable energy during  2018. The last time the country had to resort to the use of bunker or diesel was back in May 17 in response to the demand of electricity of the country, which means it has ran for more than seven consecutive months without the use of hydrocarbon fuels. Wind consolidated sa the second source in terms of the ...

The National Electric System (SEN) reached its biggest number in generation of wind power so far, with just six week left in 2018 before it comes to an end, the country has accumulated 1,512.65 gigawatt hours, surpassing the 1,287.68 gigawatt hours generated in 2017. The wind will pass for second year in a row as the second source of importance within the Costa Rican electric matrix. To date it...

The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE) announced the suspension for indefinite time of the hydroelectrical project El Diquis in the South Pacific, after seven years and an investment of $146 million. The reasons behind the decision were explained by Irene Cañas, Executive Director of ICE during a press conference this Friday, November 2. Diquis project involved a hydroelectric plant of 6...

Costa Rica surpassed the fourth consecutive year producing 98% of clean energy generation in its National Electric System (SEN). On Wednesday, October 3, the electricity generated from renewable sources: water, wind, Geothermal, biomass and solar, have represented 98.15% of the total energy produced in the country. The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) projects that for the rest of the ye...

Costa Rican physicist, mechanical engineer and former NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz stated during the I International Hydrogen Forum that took place in Costa Rica this Monday that he wants the country to give hydrogen technologies an opportunity as a tool to transform the transportation sector in one with less contamination. “We don’t want Costa Rica to close the doors to this technology. ...

Guanacaste is not just famous for its many beautiful beaches and National Parks, but is also generates 38.22% of the electricity of Costa Rica since 1991, all of it from renewable sources. Structures created by the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), the private sector and a cooperative, makes Guanacaste home to 27 electricity plants that are part of the National Electric System (SEN). ...

98.53% of the electricity generated in Costa Rica between June 1, 2014 and June 30, 2018 came from renewable sources. In total the National Electric System (SEN) in this period produces 44,300.53 gigabytes per hour, out of which 43,647.72 came from five clean energy sources: Hydroelectric (74%), Geothermal (11.92), Wind (11.08%), Biomass (0.73%) and Sun (0.03%). Bunker and diesel represented on...

President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado, and the Minister of Treasury, Rocio Aguilar, signed this Monday Law No.9573 which grants Costa Rica a line of credit for $500 million from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) –known as Conditional Credit Loan for Investment Projects (CCLIP) - for the development of sustainable electric projects. Individual loan contracts will stem from this CCLIP ...

After four months of having been shut down to repair a leak, the largest hydroelectric plant in Central America, Reventazon in Costa Rica, resumed operations. Initially the works to repair the problem were estimated to take three months, but then the Costa Rican Electric Institute considered it could take up to six months, however, the main works were concluded and the plant resumed operations...

President of Costa Rica, Carlos Alvarado was emphatic during the inauguration ceremony about the importance of protecting the environment and of taking the necessary steps towards reaching the country goal of becoming a carbon-neutral economy by 2021. The Presidential Inauguration Ceremony was a carbon neutral event, the president, his family and team arrived at the ceremony aboard Nyuti the fi...

The biggest hydroelectric plant in Costa Rica and in fact all Central America, Reventazon, a mega-project that was inaugurated just close to a year and a half ago will remain shut down for at least six months to fix a “strong water leak” present in the rock massif of the dam’s spillway. The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE), company in charge of this project, confirmed the existence of a c...

Costa Rica has the most expensive electricity in Central America, according to the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean 2017 carried out by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, known as ECLAC. The survey stated that Costa Rica has the highest rates for all types of consumption, residential, commercial and industrial in comparison to the rates...

The Costa Rican government and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines are joining to combat carbon dioxide emissions, said the KLM press office. KLM is the only European airline operating intercontinental flights using biofuel. Over the coming months, the business will collaborate with the Costa Rican government in a first ever such alliance for the company to research the possibilities of flying betw...

Monday at the Jacó Walk shopping center, the first recharging center for electric vehicles was inaugurated in Costa Rica's Pacific region. Jacó Beach, a town about an hour and a half from San José the Central Pacific coast, is expected to receive increased development in the next few years. The town is now out and ahead of the pack on green energy with this joint program of the Costa Rican and ...

The National Center for Energy Control (CENCE, its initials in Spanish) will have state-of-the-art equipment and a new building by the end of 2017, when it inaugurates its new facilities, the most modern of its kind in Central America. Its operations - now in the Sabana North section of San José - will move to San Miguel de Santo Domingo de Heredia, a location strategically chosen by the Costa ...

The Magaly Movie Theater in Costa Rica is now operating both its screening rooms with clean energy, thanks to the installation of solar panels that will eventually allow it run completely with solar energy and stop using electricity. This makes Costa Rica the third country in Latin America - after Brazil and Argentina - to adopt clean energy use in the movie theaters. The official announce...

The Norwegian Fund for Developing Countries (Norfund) and Sunshine, a subsidiary of Losko, signed a strategic alliance that will facilitate financing of solar energy projects in Costa Rica and countries in Central America. Three solar success stories stand out in Costa Rica for having benefitted from this initiative. Norfund, founded in 1997 by the Norwegian government, has as its primary go...

The U.S.-based Geothermal Resources Council (GRC), a global leader in the field, honored the late Costa Rican scientist Alfredo Mainieri Protti during its awards ceremony that honors the best and brightest of the global geothermal energy community, said the non-profit group this week. Earlier this year, Costa Rica's Electricity Institute (ICE) bestowed another honor on the country's geothermal pi...