Comment & Analysis
Last month’s climate change talks in Paris, with the commitment to limit global warming to below 2°C, not only highlighted the need for low-carbon energy generation technologies, but also that politicians are behind the curve. Shortly after the conclusion of the talks in December, reports from two very different countries illustrated the similar levels of progress already being made to achieve the transition to low-carbon energy.
First, the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE), a government-run electricity and telecommunications provider, reported a record-breaking year for the country’s energy industry. Costa Rica achieved “99% renewable electricity generation”, it was reported. For 285 days of 2015, this small Central American country, with a population of 5 million, ran its grid entirely on renewable sources.
Costa Rica is blessed with abundant natural resources. The country features many rivers and heavy tropical rainfall, which supply reservoirs that feed a series of hydroelectric dams. Three quarters of the country’s electricity is supplied this way. This is expected to grow when the country’s largest hydroelectric plant yet, a 296MW installation at the Reventazón Dam in the north of the country, comes online later this year.
The rest of Costa Rica’s energy comes from geothermal, wind, biomass and solar sources. Yet it’s wind that Costa Rica is promoting the most, because the windiest time of year coincides with the country’s dry season, when hydroelectricity production dips. Last year the country also generated the most electricity it has ever done from wind, 278.14MW. By 2017 Costa Rica plans to increase its wind power capacity to 393MW and to produce 10.5% of its electricity from wind.
Salvador Lopez, director of the Center for Energy Control at the ICE, said: “The conditions of the trade winds in the country, integration of new windfarms to the national grid and the support they provide to the hydroelectric plants, have allowed greater use of the wind resource.”
Shortly after the Costa Rica report, the UK issued its annual energy statement. For the first time ever, renewables accounted for almost half of Scottish energy generation, 49.7%.
Wind turbines in Scotland provided a total of 8,958,130MWh of electricity to the national grid in 2014, an average of 746,510MWh each month, enough power to supply all Scottish households for six months of 2014. Scotland, with its population of around 5 million, is targeting 100% of gross electricity consumption from renewable sources by 2020. By far the largest contributor to this target will be wind power.
Yet wind turbines remain one of the most controversial sources of renewable energy. Wind’s proponents hail the growing number of turbines worldwide as a sign of our more sustainable times. Critics point to the high costs, intermittent output and spoilt views of cherished landscapes.
Yet the argument has become redundant. Where the winds blow, engineers in the energy industry have already made up their minds, from Costa Rica to Scotland. It’s best not to fall behind the curve.