A Recent Australian Study Places the Country #4 Worldwide, and as the Only Central American Nation Ranked.
Costa Rica’s commitment towards sustainability has been celebrated worldwide due to its innovative efforts, wide range of areas of action, and the fact that, despite its small size and limitations in development, it still figures as one of the world’s leading nations in these topics.
Recently, the Compare the Market Australia study about renewable energy featured Costa Rica in an enviable position, ranking #4 worldwide in terms of reliance on green energy. The study looks at how much renewable energy accounts for the majority of the total electricity capacity of each country, and then ranks them accordingly.
In this study, Norway came out on top with a whopping 97.4%, mainly due to its important role in hydropower development. Iceland, another Nordic nation, was second by a minimal margin at 97.3%, which comes as no surprise given the country’s goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2040.
Third place goes to the small principality of Andorra, which has a 96.9% of renewable energy share, coming mostly from imported hydroelectric, bioenergy, and solar energy from France and Spain. Finally, Costa Rica comes out in 4th place with 86.8% of green energy shares, being just one of two American countries in the top 10 (Uruguay is placed 10th at 75.8%), and the only Central American nation to be a part of the ranking.
The ticos receive nearly 65% of their energy from hydroelectric plants that make the most out of the country’s privileged amount of rainfall, lush rainforests, and multiple rivers. Efforts to support hydropower have been a constant feature in the country ever since ICE (Costa Rican Institute of Electricity) founded the Reventazón Dam, with important projects in Lake Arenal, Lake Cachi, Rio Macho, and Pirrís. Additionally, Costa Rica also complements hydroelectric energy with geothermal energy, biomass, solar power and wind power.
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