Costa Rica Sets New Record After Running on 100% Renewable Electricity for 300 Days

Although it may be just a small country, Costa Rica has always been determined in its efforts in promoting clean energy. As some may remember, the country generated 100% of its electricity from renewable energy sources for 299 days in 2015. The year following that, it ran for 271 days on anything aside from fossil fuels.

For 2017, Costa Rica just broke its own record as it ran for 300 days “on a mixture of hydro, wind, geothermal, biomass, and solar energy,” reported IFLScience. This new record, the site said, goes “hand-in-hand with the government’s plan to become carbon neutral by 2021” a self-imposed deadline that was made over 10 years ago.

Costa Rica just set new record after running entirely on renewable energy for 300 days.

Meanwhile, a report by the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) tells us that with several weeks remaining for 2017, it appears that the total number of clean energy usage will likely increase.

Carlos Manuel Obregón, executive president of ICE, further went on to say that grid improvements and clean energy power plants upgrades have made it possible for the country to hit the impressive achievement.

Several contributing factors come into play in achieving the milestone.

For once, observers are quick to point out that Costa Rica’s small population and size is helpful in making much doable compared with bigger countries such as the United States or China, for example.

On top of that, the country has rich natural resources (hydropower and geothermal sources, to be specific) that some other countries lack.

However, it should likewise be mentioned that the biggest factor here is that Costa Rica has always been serious about not investing in fossil fuels and the said industry “holds no significant sway over its government, which has set back climate mitigation efforts elsewhere by decades,” IFLScience wrote.

This is definitely a big win for the environment!

Clearly, Costa Rica has shown others that it is indeed possible to power a country without using coal. All you need is clean energy and some determination.