London — While South Africa is trying to fight its way out of the darkness that Eskom and its crippling debt have imposed on every citizen, there are other countries showing the way with their commitment to renewable energy. The shining beacon on renewables is the small country of Costa Rica in Central America, which is extending the days that it is generating 100% of its electricity from renewable energy to 300 and it plans to be carbon neutral by 2021. This week, the United Kingdom opened the world’s largest off-shore windfarm, 120 kilometres off the Yorkshire coast with massive turbines that can power a home for 24 hours with one rotation. The UK now generates up to 30% of its power from renewables. South Africa’s renewable industry is growing but a CSIR report notes that electricity production from wind and solar plants attributed to a mere 4.6% of the system load, but it is notably higher than the country’s imports of electricity. The CSIR pointed out that the small “renewable-energy fleet had a positive contribution during load-shedding in December” 2018. Eskom’s problems won’t be solved in the short or medium term, but it is probably high time that we explore the example of Costa Rica for more reliance on other natural resources, the wind and sun to provide a solution to our electricity woes. – Linda van Tilburg
By Thulasizwe Sithole
The country wedged between Nicaragua and Panama with its miles of sandy beaches, blue water and sunshine all year is known mainly known as a destination for newlyweds and surfers. If the beaches are not enough of a reason to visit, there are jungles, active volcanoes and an abundance of wildlife. But Costa Rica is not only setting its sights on being a prime tourist destination, it also wants to save the world through its advances in renewable energy. Costa Rica first managed to generate 100% of its electricity from renewables, a mixture of hydro, geothermal, wind, biomass and solar energy for 299 days in 2015. This feat was repeated in 2016 when they managed to cut out fossil fuels for 271 days. And now they have managed to run for an impressive 300 days solely on a mixture of renewables.
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The plan is to become 100% carbon-free by 2021, a deadline which was set a decade ago. The Executive president of the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity, Carlos Manuel ObregĂłn says they managed to reach this target by improvements to the grid and they have upgraded their clean energy plants.
It has to remembered though that Costa Rica is a small country. With only about 4.9m people, the goal of a carbon free future is much easier to achieve than big countries like the USA or China which are much larger in size. It also has hydropower and geothermal sources, which many developed countries do not have access to.
It should however be noted that Costa Rica decided not to invest in fossil fuel generation a while ago. And while it is to be lauded that an entire country could be completely fossil free, the overall impact on the world’s greenhouses gases would be minimal. Costa Rica produced 12,141 less greenhouse gases than China which makes its contribution to global warming relative to big countries, insignificant.
The example of Costa Rica does however prove that it is not impossible to go against the current thinking of more developed nations that going coal-free appears to be impossible. It also proves that clean energy is really a viable, sustainable alternative to energy from fossil fuels. The praise that Costa Rica has been receiving, is indeed deserved.
