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Page added on November 23, 2013
Costa Rica to build 3 geothermal electricity plants with Japanese funding
The Tico Times has a report on plans to expand geothermal power in Costa Rica – Costa Rica to build 3 geothermal electricity plants with Japanese funding.
Costa Rica hopes that the additional electricity generated by steam from the volcanic area will help the country reach its goal of generating 95 percent of its electricity with renewable resources by 2014. …The first of the proposed plants, Pailas II, will have an electrical generation capacity of 55 megawatts and will cost more than $333 million to build, according to a statement from Casa Presidencial. The costa Rican Electricity Institute, or ICE, will construct two other 50-MW power plants, Borinquen I and II, 40 kilometers away from the Pailas geothermal plants. “This is 165 MW of reliable [electricity generation]; that is to say, they will operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This is clean, renewable and reliable energy, as reliable as any conventional thermal electrical power plant,” said ICE Executive President Teofilo de la Torre.
11 Comments on "Costa Rica to build 3 geothermal electricity plants with Japanese funding"
Arthur on Sat, 23rd Nov 2013 10:24 am
Geothermal is the energy of choice of all these ‘shaky’ countries living dangerous on fault lines in the earth crust.
Kenz300 on Sat, 23rd Nov 2013 11:53 am
The transition to safer, cleaner and cheaper alternative energy sources continues all around the world.
Wind, solar, wave energy, geothermal and second generation biofuels made from algae, cellulose and waste are the future.
Arthur on Sat, 23rd Nov 2013 1:40 pm
http://www.mapsofworld.com/world-maps/maps/fault-lines-map.jpg
US Westcoast, Philippines, Japan, Middle America (the one without Republicans.lol), Kenia, Iceland, that’s where the geothermal action is.
Arthur on Sat, 23rd Nov 2013 1:44 pm
Here is a ranking of geothermal utilities world wide:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_electricity#Utility-grade_plants
1. US
2. Philipines
3. Indonesia
4. Mexico
5. Italy
I thank God on my knees that there is NO potential for geothermal energy in the Netherlands. Here we like to stick to the advice of Bob Dylan:
The answer my friend is blowin’ in the wind
The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
BillT on Sat, 23rd Nov 2013 3:03 pm
Arthur is just jealous…lol.
The Philippines has at least 8 geothermal power plants, the oldest two are from 1979. Most date from the 80s and 90s. So much for ‘temporary due to quakes’. And if a quake takes one out, it will not be dangerous to the planet like nuclear. They were not that stupid.
Besides, Denmark has a long way to fall as it uses 11 times the electric, per capita, as a Filipino. That is the future level of the West, if they are lucky.
Arthur on Sat, 23rd Nov 2013 3:57 pm
Arthur is just jealous…lol.
I made my remark because fault lines come with earth quakes. I am not jealous at all that we never have situations like this (not to mention the storms);
http://i.i.cbsi.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim2/2013/10/14/philippines_earthquake_184634980_620x350.jpg
We’ll get along fine with wind, solar and some bio and low-grade geothermal for heating purposes.
That is the future level of the West, if they are lucky.
Europe will achieve the transition by 2050, absent of war or major economic disruptions (admittedly a big if). But the geophysical potential for 100% renewable replacement is there. We’ll get there at some point.
Others on Sat, 23rd Nov 2013 7:43 pm
Geothermal is the next big energy source. Every big building can have heat source pump to provide heating and cooling needs.
BillT on Sun, 24th Nov 2013 1:49 am
Another techie fix that will die with the end of the Age of Hydrocarbons. Anything requiring infrastructure (motors, piping, controls, etc) will go away when affordable oil goes away. Including geothermal, windmills and solar panels.
Bio-fuels will revert to hay and silage fed to animals. Or the basic diet of humans. Heat will come from wood stoves, if the forests survive climate change. Even coal will not be available when we can no longer move mountains or tunnel for miles. So, we will regress back to the times before coal.
Arthur on Sun, 24th Nov 2013 3:06 pm
Anything requiring infrastructure (motors, piping, controls, etc) will go away when affordable oil goes away.
No it won’t. A kwh is a kwh, regardless if it comes from oil, wind, solar or geothermal, as long as the EROEI value is large enough. A value of 7 is workable, but the higher the EROEI, the lower your energy bill will be. At some point we will achieve the energy transition towards a 100% solar economy. Could easily take until 2100.
bobinget on Sun, 24th Nov 2013 9:37 pm
Yeah, Ya gotta agree with Arthur on this one. The idea up throwing up one’s hands in surrender, just because one power resource peters out doesn’t mean we are
finished. I looked into geothermal heat pump for home heating. Prices in the last few years are beginning to get into
the usable range.Of course home heating by ground sourced heat pumps are not the same as heavy duty boiling water.
As for direct steam heat you won’t find it everywhere. Like it or not we are finding out quite a bit from ultra deep oil and gas drillers.
GE just bought a company, that among other tech stuff, monitors intense heat
in deep oil and gas wells.
Like fracking waste disposal, geothermal will also cause minor earthquakes in certain zones.
Every single energy resource has serious side effects, drawbacks, waste.
bobinget on Sun, 24th Nov 2013 10:03 pm
I’m in Nicaragua. This poor nation lags behind Costa Rica but is catching up quickly.At first I was going to tell about the smoking volcano that is a major tourist attraction near Manugua. The only thing being generated here ar tourist dollars.
Last week I caught a local bus for a three hour ride to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific coast. (super touristy)
I’m sitting in a small, quite reasonably priced windowless hotel room with air-conditioning year round I guess, as this is November. Here’s the rub. Coming in I could not but help notice a dozen giant
Danish wind machines slowly turning props that look 40 or 50 meters high.
Wow I thought, renewable city.
WHEN those monster blades STOP turning however, so does my AC.
The owners have installed gasoline generators. Each room comes with lots of fans, I have three. The plan is to throw a switch in the wall from ‘municipal’ to generator. Enough power for fans, little else.
Often, central power is off for many hours while our Honda generator churns.
Off I go for an afternoon swim while most of youse guys chop wood.