Caribbean & Central America - February 2022
COSTA RICA: More progress in clean energy efforts
In December Costa Rica’s President Carlos Alvarado and Environment & Energy Minister Andrea Meza signed a decree which seeks to incentivise the use of hydrogen to boost the green economy. This comes amid other signs of Costa Rica continuing to shore up its green credentials.
Signed on 15 December, the decree aims to promote and incentivise the use of hydrogen and boost the green economy. It seeks to establish guidelines to develop a regulatory framework for Costa Rica’s public services regulatory authority (Aresep) which would make it easier for distribution companies to take advantage of surpluses in the national electricity system (SEN). In particular, the objective is to end the transport sector’s dependence on oil derivatives.
According to a government press release, “sustainable hydrogen is considered an option to transform the transport sector” and “decarbonise electricity consumption in the industrial sector”. It notes that while Costa Rica generates over 99% of its electricity from renewable sources, electricity accounts for 26% of energy consumed in the country while the transport sector, which is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, represents 64.5%. Ending the transport sector’s significant dependence on petrol derivatives, which generate 69% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), is thus key for the energy transition, according to the Alvarado government.
Alvarado also highlighted a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where on 7 December he met Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, executive director of Masdar (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company), one of the main developers of renewable energy projects in the Middle East, to discuss the development of green hydrogen. This is in line with a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2018 by Masdar and Costa Rica’s state electricity firm Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) to promote renewable energy development.
During his trip to Abu Dhabi President Alvarado also signed a partnership with Francesco La Camera, the director general of the international renewable energy agency (Irena), to strengthen Costa Rica’s decarbonisation plan and boost the financing of renewable energy projects. According to an Irena press release, during the meeting the two discussed the creation of an investment roadmap to complement Costa Rica’s national decarbonisation plan for 2018-2050. The plan will utilise Irena’s upcoming Renewable Energy Roadmap for Central America to identify financing opportunities for major national projects, and support decision making around technology and regulatory frameworks.
- Energy matrix
According to preliminary figures from Costa Rica’s national electricity control centre (CENCE), part of the national electricity institute (ICE), 99.98% of the country’s energy came from renewable sources in 2021: hydroelectric production accounted for 74.12% of production, geothermal was 12.97%, wind power was 12.33%, and biomass and solar energy were 0.56%.
A presidential press release dated 16 December cited ICE’s electricity manager Luis Roberto Rodríguez as saying: “The strength of our matrix enables us to, even during the [coronavirus] pandemic, achieve record numbers [in clean energy production], maintaining the quality and continuity of our services. Costa Rica is positioned as a world leader in the production of sustainable energy”. Costa Rica has obtained over 98% of its energy from renewable sources since 2015. END BOX
- ICI
The 16 December presidential press release highlighted that according to the 2021 International Competitiveness Index (ICI) report, released in September 2021 by Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad (IMCO), a think-tank based in Mexico City, Costa Rica’s energy matrix has the highest amount of energy from renewable sources of the 43 economies measured, while overall it ranked as the 28th most competitive economy.