Renewable energy covered 100% of Costa Rica's electricity mix in the first 75 days of this year, acording to a release by public electricity company Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE).
The increase of rain and the resulting well-filled state of the country's four main reservoirs led to an increase in hydropower electricity generation. The rest of the electricity mix was supplied by geothermal, wind, biomass and solar sources. As a result, the country completely forewent the use of fossil fuels power plants. Moreover, the ICE expects renewable energy sources to remain significant in the coming months.
In 2013, renewable energy accounted for about 88% of Costa Rica's electricity mix, including total capacity of 2,731.2 MW and 10,136.1 gigawatt hours of generation. About 70% of that was supplied by hydropower (1,725.3 MW and 6,851 gigawatt hours), according to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Eclac). Geothermal made up some 15% of the mix (217.5 MW and 1,516.7 gigawatt hours), wind energy around 5% (148.1 MW and 484.6 gigawatt hours), cogeneration about 0.8% (40 MW and 86.3 gigawatt hours) and solar just 0.01 % (1 MW capacity, 1.4 gigawatt hours). Fossil fuel power plants made up some 12% (595.7 MW and 1,196 gigawatt hours.
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