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Costa Rica Goes 75 Days Powering Itself Using Only Renewable Energy
An anonymous reader writes with news about an impressive renewable energy accomplishment in Costa Rica. Costa Rica has achieved a clean energy milestone by using 100 per cent renewable energy for a record 75 days in a row. The feat was achieved thanks to heavy rainfall, which powered four hydroelectric plants in the first three months of the year, the state-run Costa Rican Electricity Institute said. No fossil fuels have been burnt to generate electricity since December 2014, in the state which is renowned for its clean energy policies."
or did they go all electric cars and boats too and start cooking on electric? they had a good rainfall.
with this reasoning norway has been 100%+ renewables for a loong time(they generate more renewable energy than they use, and export the rest). sure, they do export fossil fuels too..
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Now, they only need to install electric pumps for when it's not raining, and they're 100% renewable forever!
Hydroelectric for some reason is never talked about for green energy. Because of the Hoover dam image. A large structure that completely changes the local environment. The problem is in america, we are still stuck on the idea of Big Energy large grids covering the nation. We don't think in terms of small energy, having a small community powered by modest green sources. And every community can have different sources to meet their needs. Solar is good. But some of us live in areas where there is a lot of tree cover (and cutting trees isn't really the green option), Other areas have a decent wind, and others are near running water. These smaller sections will in agragate may take up more space, their impact is actually a lot less, as a smaller plot of land can heal a lot faster then say plowing down hundred acres.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
That is about 9500 days Iceland has Powered Itself Using Only Renewable Energy.
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A bit over 99% of the electricity generated in Norway is from hydro plants, because it has a ton of hydro resources.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Funny I've lived there for over 25 years and never, ever had my car searched. Sure I've been pulled over for speeding. I've also been stopped twice at a road-block aimed at catching intoxicated drivers (like they have almost everywhere in the world including the "free" US). I've been stopped once and asked to provide ID and later learned on the news that there had been a pretty violent crime in my neighborhood. But just stopped to be searched for the hell of it? Never.
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Quebec, with 8.2 million people, goes 365 days on hydro all the time.
Well to be fair, there is a certain irony about calling the energy "renewable" when it couldn't be sustained.
Still, it's an impressive accomplishment that they pulled it off as long as they did. It should be noted though that:
1) It's not replicable everywhere at any time.
2) Costa Rica doesn't have particularly demanding energy needs (as the "stupid" guy above pointed out).
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I think it is clear that alternative sources of energy not only exist, but will be brought to bear once the easy-peasy carbons are depleted or no longer cost-effective.
What everyone needs to come to grips with is that there is no energy source that meets our current demands without some negative environmental impact.
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Unfortunately, Costa Rica still allows their police to search all cars at a checkpoint in the middle of the country so any feeling of freedom or closeness with nature is quickly soured.
Gee, that sounds familiar, sort of like what the US currently does with its border checkpoints that are in the interior of the country, and not on the border.
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You can still deplete your supply of renewables by using more than the refill rate - at least temporarily.
I think in the U.S.'s current situation it's hard to find things that even more moderate people would accept that are still big enough to produce a significant change in energy. A big hydro installation is really big, and typically requires flooding an absolutely massive area. China can pull off something like the Three Gorges project because it's heavily central planned and controls dissent, but I don't think you could get that to fly in the U.S., even if the major environmental groups disappeared tomorrow. Heck even something the size of the Hoover Dam is not that palatable to many people anymore.
Maybe if it were really in the middle of nowhere, like damming up a river in Alaska, than the average person would be fine with it, and you'd have only environmentalists opposing it. But energy transmission is expensive, so damming rivers in Alaska isn't very cost-effective.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
"The real issue is that this will require investment in research and that means not making a profit in the next 3 years, which is about the duration of how far a CXO looks."
Ahh... No.
1. There is not enough hydro resources in the US. The US has actually exploited a lot of them already. They US already gets 7% from hydro and has been using it for decades.
2. "And there is dessert enough available to put a LOT of sun collectors." And no effective way to store it for use at night and the evenings. Solar only produces power for around 8 hours a day. Less in the winter. Storage is now and has been a problem forever. Lots of money is being out into battery tech but nothing is shipping yet. Solar production also does not match peak demand. It comes close in summer but still drops to near zero while peak hours are still in effect. Also most desserts in the US are in the south. They have shorter days than areas in the north of the US in summer and much higher temperatures which means lots of AC.
Even Germany which people like to show as Solar working is really not a working system. They are going to massive coal plants for base load.
http://www.businessinsider.com...
Costa Rica is a small mountainous nation that has huge amounts of rain forests. Frankly it was dumb for them to ever use fossil fuels for electricity except as a back up. In many ways they are like Iceland in that regard. The US has a lot of hydro resources and is using them but it is not enough to power the entire US.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Notice how the largest renewable source, hydro, counts as green energy when it suits the enviros, but is anathema the rest of the time.
Right now their religion supports solar and wind power, and solar and wind power ONLY.
http://www.greenpeace.org/inte...
Note how even Greenpeace, one of the most hard line environmental movements, clearly states that there will need to be a mix of energy sources that includes wind and solar but also many others. For the time being fossil fuel is necessary, as is nuclear, but in the long term purely renewable sources (including hydo, geothermal, tidal and various non-PV types of solar) is possible. By long term they are stating around 2050 if the world makes a massive, concerted effort, which is obviously quite unlikely.
Your argument is a straw man. No major organization is arguing for just solar PV and wind.
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
and others are near running water.
In Sweden at the moment (where we have about 50% hydro, give or take), we're busy tearing down all the small dams and generation facilities in the south, since what puny amounts of power they generate doesn't outweigh the loss of fish habitat and migration routes.
Truth be told, small scale anything sucks (with the possible exception of solar panels on your roof for AC and possibly charging your electric vehicle.) Wind and hydro electrics in particular work better the bigger they are. And when it comes to hydro electrics it's better to royally screw up a large river or two and get your moneys worth of electricity and to hell with the fishies, than piss about and destroy every little stream with not much to show for it. And no fish whatsoever, anywhere.
Stefan Axelsson
We should stop using the word renewable for energy like solar wind and hydro. Its not theoretically renewable, but thats not the point. The point is that they don't emit CO2 into the atmosphere, and thats the thing that is going to screw up the climate.
So we should be using the term Non-Carbon-Emitting energy sources. We could even use the acronym NCE but its probably already in use in some other field.
How hugely ironic that you choose to spout prejudiced BS about environmentalists only liking solar + wind, and then you go on to ignore geothermal, wave, tidal, bio-waste, energy efficiency, and plenty of other ways to create, store and reduce energy usage in a less destructive manner.
Nuclear is clearly your religion.
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Five square metres of solar panel on every single domestic roof in the USA would produce a very significant energy change. 125 million houses * 5Kw is 625 gigawatts. Germany has 23 gigawatts of domestic solar panels, which, on a sunny day, is sufficient to power the whole country. Yes, obviously, it doesn't work twenty-four hours a day, or in bad weather. Yes, obviously, you need to find some way of storing energy, such as compressed air, hydrogen hydrolysis, pumped storage or whatever. None of this is rocket science.
Bottom line: the USA could power its whole economy, including road vehicles, on domestic solar panels alone.
I'm old enough to remember when discussions on Slashdot were well informed.
Being good friends with a couple guys from Costa Rica... they're some of the happiest people I know online.
And they're developed *enough*... They have nice computers and phones, they eat well, they make enough money to get by.
Happiness really is everything.
I lived in Costa Rica for a couple years, most recently about eight months ago. They have a phrase, "pura vida" which could maybe be translated as "the good life", but it's used as a greeting and farewell phrase as well. It's also used as an answer to, "How are you doing?" On the one hand, it seems remarkable that they would be happier than anyone else; broadly speaking I expect people to have the same general experiences anywhere. On the other hand, I spent a few months in Panama and then returned to CR for a holiday, and when I picked up a pizza that I had ordered, the guy said "Have a nice day," that is, "pura vida". And he meant it sincerely. At that moment, the difference in attitude was shocking; I had been used to Panamanians (although I prefer the sobriquet Panamaniacs :P) basically looking at me as a business opportunity at best.
The average Costa Rican does not have a computer, although cell phones are relatively common. Computers are quite expensive, enough to make an import business profitable, but very few people can afford one. There is a 100% import duty on cars, so those are expensive too. They also do a license plate restriction on driving, at least in San Jose. Most have electricity and relatively clean water, although they do have an issue with dumping raw sewage into almost all of the rivers. I wish I could more effectively describe the impoverished living conditions; if you have any specific questions please feel free to ask.
On the other hand, people sure don't care about working hard there. My friends in San Jose tell me that the weekend starts on Thursday, and everyone including the boss is late on Fridays and Mondays. There were as I recall a couple clubs where you paid a $10 cover and drinks were free. If there was paperwork that needed to be processed by the government, let's just say the Vogons would be proud of the Tico bureaucracy. If you needed to have your car repaired by a certain date, the Ticos will of course be delighted to tell you that it will be ready then, but no amount of inducement or cajoling will actually make it ready by a given date. Things happen when they happen, and no one is in a hurry to get anything done or to go anywhere — they call it operating on "Tico time".
However, all that said, I'm a little skeptical of the article. Most of Costa Rica is really rural, and I would be surprised if the national power grid actually extended to all corners of the country. I don't think that the average Tico really cares about environmentalism; to some degree it's a first world problem. The Costa Rican government on the other hand knows that the country basically has no industries; the farming isn't great and I believe tourism is the biggest part of the economy. Costa Rica doesn't have all that much to tour, either: there are no mayan or aztec ruins, and almost nothing in the way of indigenous culture. I heard something about painted oxcarts being a thing, but never saw one. Contrast with Panama's amazing diablo rojos (the buses or the costumes). So some while back they hit upon the idea to market themselves as a destination for "eco-tourism", which involves convincing the rest of the world that they have some sort of unique level of biodiversity. It may even be true. However, they really need to promote the image of being green and eco-friendly regardless of the truth.
If I could make a decent living there it'd be hard not to go back, even though the world is full of things I have never seen before. Whether or not the Ticos are the happiest people, I think that I can safely say that happiness for me is two-for-one mango daiquiris at the Lazy Mon. Pura Vida!
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OK, so make it $450 per panel in a 10 kWp turnkey system. Still way less than those "$5000". Do you want it gold-plated or what?
Ezekiel 23:20