ICE Seeks Funds for Dam

The government monopoly, the ICE power company, is searching out sources of finance to fund its planned Reventazon River  hydroelectric plant, included ICE's 2011-14 power plan and to go on line in 2016.

The dam is expected to cost about one billion U.S. dollars. Business News Americas reported that ICE has already issued bonds and solicited international financial  bodies including the Interamerican Developmment Bank and the European Investment Bank.

IDB has already placed $175 million in its portfolio for the dam's first phase, reported the news blog InsideCostaRica. The project, in Limon province near Siquirres, would supply some 524,000 homes.

The structure is to be a 130-meter-high, 527-meter wide rock, full face, a 1.68-kilometer water tunnel and four Francis turbines with bidding for other electicrity producing equipment to come later.

The plans are far enough along to be all but inevitable but some observers question whether hydroelectric dams, their reservoirs covering hundreds of square kilometers, are really the way to generate in a small country with precious, irreplacable natural beauty and a lively tourist industry.

Critics point to alternatives such as wind farms, solar and geothermal generation from the active volcanoes in the country. The Reventazon is one of the most spectacular white-water rivers in the world for rapids-riding rafters.