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Costa Rica Has Gone 76 Straight Days Using 100% Renewable Electricity (vox.com)

Posted by msmash on from the affinity-for-renewable-energy dept.

Last year, Costa Rica powered itself using only renewable energy for 75 days. It has topped that feat this year. Vox reports: Costa Rica is pulling off a feat most countries just daydream about: For two straight months, the Central American country hasn't burned any fossil fuels to generate electricity. That's right: 100 percent renewable power. This isn't a blip, either. For 300 total days last year and 150 days so far this year, Costa Rica's electricity has come entirely from renewable sources, mostly hydropower and geothermal. Heavy rains have helped four big hydroelectric dams run above their usual capacity, letting the country turn off its diesel generators. Now, there's a huge, huge caveat here: Costa Rica hasn't eschewed all fossil fuels entirely. The country still has more than 1 million cars running on old-fashioned gasoline, which is why imported oil still supplies over half its total energy needs. The country also has cement plants that burn coal.

3 of 226 comments (clear)

  1. They aren't even wired throughout by mi · · Score: 5, Informative

    In our trip to the country, we stayed in a semi-permanent camp on the Pacific shore, which was not wired. In fact, there was no proper road to it either — the only way to get there was by (small) plane.

    The camp had a generator, of course — a noisy affair, which they fired for a few hours each day to power up/recharge the radio and phones. But, hey, there are still places in the world, where even those evil devices — made from poisonous materials by exploited workers toiling in polluting factories — aren't known...

    Some times the spurning of civilization is explained simply by absence of civilization...

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  2. Re:Double standard with renewable classification. by danbob999 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well, those people in the states are wrong. Hydro is renewable, like it or not. Renewable doesn't mean no impact on the population and ecosystems. All power sources have an impact.

  3. Re:gasoline == old fashioned?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

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