Clean Tech Closer Than Ever

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In February, the news blog Top 10 Costa Rica published a fine article on this country’s efforts to attain clean technology and move closer to President Chinchilla’s deadline of 2021 to be the first carbon neutral nation.

Below is a summary of their 10 points toward progress:

programs have brought foreign students into this country to study how new technology can provide renewable energy. The news blog singled out Utah State University’s physics and energy programs as an example, studying our use of wind, solar, sugar cane waste, geothermal and biomass techniques as renewable sources of energy.

2. Electric grid — This country has received a great deal of encouragement in clean sources of power generation and no country has been more supportive than Germany. Experts from that country have made no secret they consider Costa Rica an attractive location for clean tech investment and one German company, Juwi Wind GmbH, is a pioneer in wind generation here

3. U.S.- Costa Rican Partnership—Although President Obama made clean energy a goal, distractions of a balky economy and foreign policy have frustrated his efforts. But, just as it’s easier to turn a rowboat around than an ocean liner, it is easier to reach that goal in a small economy than in a huge one. The joint Energy Efficiency Center in Costa Rica will provide shorter term results here but may provide a model later for the U.S.

4. Solar Energy — The rural electrification program of ICE during the 1970s brought electricity to such farm areas as Guanacaste province. But even today, it is not feasible to run lines to many isolated villages in rugged areas such as the Talamanca Mountains. The United Nations Development Program has brought some electricity to remote areas through solar panels, investing thousands of dollars.

5. Wind Energy — The blog points out that only nine miles per hour wind speed is needed for favorable power generation and many areas of the country enjoy 15-20 mph winds as an average. Low dry season water levels limits hydroelectric power seasonally and initial installation of solar panels is expensive, making wind an attractive alternative. Three projects have been funded by World Bank’s Prototype Carbon Fund.

6. Financial Incentives — One of the most effective means of promoting clean energy are amendments made to the tax structure, exempting solar power stoves and panels along with other appliances that use renewable power sources from the sales tax.

7. Costa Rican Green Building Council — Here is an innovation that has already earned many local architects international recognition. The saving in energy of green design is recognized but often not honored. But one nature lodge in the country near a rainforest pioneered green building by building in an air ducting system to cool it instead of powered air conditioning decades ago.

8. BostonScientific’s Plant — Related to the above is the medical device manufacturer whose plant, completed in 2010, incorporated such details as solar panels, plenty of windows for natural light, walls made of recycled material and even cork flooring, providing a pleasant work environment for 1,700 employees.

9. Nation Joins World Green Building Council — Still on this subject, this step offers more encouragement to follow Boston Scientific’s ground-breaking example. As Green Building member Greg Williamson told the blog, "It provides Costa Rican real estate developers the tools and information needed to make sustainability and carbon neutrality an attainable goal."

10. The Dream Eco-City — Costa Rican architects have in mind the ideal future city, nestled in jungle side-by-side with nature without muscling the latter out. The "greenhouse" buildings, water conservation, selected building materials, energy efficiency and inside air quality make Alcurata, as the mythical city is named, unobtrusive as possible amid the jungle. And it’s attainable.

Note:On one point we differ from the Top 10 blog. Sugar cane is, like banana plants, one of those messy growths whose discarded leaves and discarded stalks after use can be dried and burned to provide power to the sugar processing plant. This is currently done around Cañas. But the air pollution created is terrible and those living nearby can be identified by their red eyes.

An initially more expensive but better long-term solution would be to use this residue in a biomass digester to create methane gas or alcohol fuel.