Costa Rica, A Pioneer Of Running Solely on Renewable Energy

costa rica running on renewable energy

You probably didn’t think it was possible but it’s true: for 75 days straight, Costa Rica ran on 100% renewable energy. Then, they did it again  in 2016 for 76 days straight. But that isn’t the only thing they’re doing in this field…


By the year 2021, Costa Rica plans to be completely carbon neutral.

Since they’ve already operated on only renewable energy (much more difficult) for 299 days in the last two years, it is definitely feasible.

Carbon Neutral vs 100% Renewable Energy

Before we get too deep in this, let’s have a firm understanding of the difference between what is considered ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘100% renewable.’

Here is the definition of carbon neutrality:



Leading the world in carbon neutrality

For almost 300 days, the country of Costa Rica has run on a combination of:  hydropower, geothermal, wind, & solar energy.

That means, the government did not burn any oil, coal, or natural gas to power the country.

No other country this size has come close to a feat like this.

For example, Portugal was recently praised in the news for running on 100% renewable’s for 4 days. Which is amazing, but also a testament for Costa Rica’s 299 days over the last 2 years.

Here’s how they did it


Because of that, the country has abundance of geothermal renewable sources that account for much of the necessary energy to make the country successfully function.



The future

Costa Rica has been focused on environmental sustainability from the outset and they are working hard to keep it a priority in the future.

Recently approved to be built, Costa Rica is constructing THREE 50 MW geothermal power plants costing $954 million. It should be known, this is no cheap investment…especially for a small country that is 50th in GDP.


But it doesn’t stop there.  Costa Rica is also unveiling a 305.5 MW hydroelectric plant that is set to power over half a million homes…which is A LOT considering there are less than 5 million people in the entire country.

source:  Under 30 Experiences