Use of renewable energy at investment farms in Costa Rica

Renewable energy can provide many benefits in terms of sustainability and resilience in farms. The main use is as a source of energy in production processes and in homes. You can have energy to produce, transform and store food for animals or in general, for production. In Costa Rica, the use of this type of tools is growing, since the natural characteristics of the territory allow us to get the most out of it.

Renewable energies are those that are permanently available in the environment or those whose source can be constantly regenerated; they use natural resources such as biomass, wind, water or solar radiation. Once obtained, it is transformed, with the help of technology, into electrical energy for common use.

Renewable energies are highly competitive; By implementing tools that maximize their benefits, the cost of production within a farm can be reduced. Its main characteristic is that there are no greenhouse gas emissions or polluting emissions. The types are classified into:

• Solar energy: it can be obtained from light (photovoltaic) or heat (thermal).
• Hydraulic or hydroelectric: it is obtained from the energy produced by freshwater streams and rivers.

• Geothermal Energy: It is heat energy contained in the interior of the earth.
• Wind energy: it is obtained from the wind.
• Biomass and Biogas: It is extracted from organic matter and waste.
• Tidal and wave: As its name indicates, it is obtained from the tides and waves.
• Bioethanol: organic fuel obtained through fermentation processes of vegetable products.
• Biodiesel: Organic fuel for the automotive industry, obtained from vegetable oils.

Costa Rica has stood out worldwide for the protection of the environment and natural resources; Thanks to this, by 2019 about 98% of the total energy we consume was already produced through renewable sources.

For the year 2020, according to data from the National Electric System (SEN), hydroelectric energy was (and continues to be) the main electricity matrix in Costa Rica with a contribution of more than 71.95%. The second most important source is geothermal with 14.90%, followed by wind energy with 12.39% and finally biomass and the sun energy with 0.54%.

Some of the main benefits of investing in farms with renewable energies is that the Law No. 22,009 project known as the “Law for the Promotion and Regulation of Distributed Energy Resources from renewable sources” is being developed, which seeks to allow consumers and farm owners, to produce their own renewable energy and have the possibility of selling the surplus.

The development and promotion of this type of electricity generation is not only an advantage for the country, but also allows, for the first time, the generation of self-consumption figures, including various renewable sources and autonomous tool modalities, where producers can trade the surpluses.

Other benefits:

In addition to the return and profit that can be generated by investing in a farm in Costa Rica, the special characteristics of their renewable energies help to:

• The environmental protection
• Cost reduction
• Improvement in production processes
• Resource maximization
• And more!

Given the high rates of pollution and bad practices, the incorporation of mechanisms that are more friendly to the environment has had a great boom. This is why many people are including renewable energy processes in their farms, attracting investment and improving their production processes.

If you want to know specific options for farms with renewable energy in the Costa Rican territory, do not hesitate to contact our specialized advisor Alfonso Sancho.