Costa Rica Now in 100% Renewable Energy
Using only renewable energy to power an entire city or even a whole nation may seem unbelievable. But Costa Rica has proved that it is possible as the country has started to rely 100% on renewable energy.
Costa Rica, a rain forested country, is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the east, Panama and Nicaragua to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west and Ecuador to the south. The Central American nation has a population of about 5 million, of whom almost a quarter reside in San Jose, its capital city.
The Costa Rican government said that the country is the only nation to meet all five criteria created to assess and measure environmental sustainability, thanks to its progressive environmental policies. In 2009, Costa Rica was also dubbed by the NEF or New Economics Foundation as the greenest, or the most eco-friendly, country in the planet. With these accomplishments, the nation’s government aims to become the first ever country to have a net zero carbon footprint by the year 2021.
Today, the government of Costa Rica proudly announced that for almost three months, the country has relied solely on renewable energy. At the start of 2015, they used hydropower to keep things running by taking advantage of the current heavy rainfalls.
However, using this kind of renewable energy highly requires steady water flow. Knowing that heavy rains will soon stop, the government has planned ahead by making use of geothermal heat from the country’s numerous volcanoes. An amount of almost $1 billion has been allotted for generating geothermal energy to power up the entire Central American nation.
Other countries have already started tapping into their renewable resources to produce power for their cities. Among these nations are Denmark, where 40% of their power source is generated from wind, and Bonaire, a Dutch territory producing almost 100% of its energy from renewable resources. Included also in the list are Estonia, Sweden and Bulgaria.
The idea of generating energy from renewable resources is something other nations should consider. With Costa Rica and other countries aiming to power their respective nations by using renewable energy, the planet might just become greener in the near future.