While most of the world still runs on dirty fossil fuels, Costa Rica has generated nearly all of its electricity from renewable sources of energy for nearly a decade. For comparison, the US generates just over 20 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. Costa Rica made global headlines in 2015 for generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy for 75 days in a row. Today, it consistently gets around 99 percent of its electricity from renewables.
It’s one of the most important plants in the country, and it’s in the zone where we expect lower precipitation due to climate change. In the south of the country, we will get heavier rainfall. However, we can’t get that rainfall into our system; our plants are not ready to harness that amount of water. So how will you prepare for that? MJC: Diversify. The thing with a renewable energy system is that you also need to diversify so that you won’t be subjected to only the availability of water.