Speaker 1: How would you like to live in a country that
Speaker 1: depends solely on clean renewable energy. Well, pack your bags,
Speaker 1: we're moving the Costa Rica. I'm Jonathan Strickland and this
Speaker 1: is tex Stuff. Daily. Eco Watch reports that the country
Speaker 1: of Costa Rica in Central America has run on nothing
Speaker 1: but renewable energy sources for three hundred days. That's according
Speaker 1: to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity, which in turn
Speaker 1: pulls data from the National Center for Energy Control. And
Speaker 1: that's a record breaker. Back in two thousand fifteen, Costa
Speaker 1: Rica set the record of two hundred nine nine days
Speaker 1: at renewable energy reliance. Last year they had a little setback,
Speaker 1: with just two d seventy one days out of the year.
Speaker 1: That renewable energy comes from several different sources. The overwhelming
Speaker 1: majority of it, at seventy eight point to six percent,
Speaker 1: is from hydropower. This is largely possible because Costa Rica
Speaker 1: has a high concentration per capita of rivers and dams.
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen, the country brought two big hydropower plants online,
Speaker 1: one of which the Riventazon facility, is the second largest
Speaker 1: in the country. The first would be a little thing
Speaker 1: called the Panama Canal. Hydropower uses the movement of water
Speaker 1: to generate electricity. Typically, the way this is done is
Speaker 1: that you create a channel for water from a high
Speaker 1: elevation to flow down to a lower elevation. In other words,
Speaker 1: the potential energy of the water converts to kinetic energy
Speaker 1: as it moves through the channel. Gravity is doing all
Speaker 1: the work for you. On its way down, the water
Speaker 1: collides with the blades of a turbine. The force of
Speaker 1: the moving water causes the turbine to rotate. This rotating
Speaker 1: turbine provides mechanical energy to a generator. Generators work on
Speaker 1: a pretty simple principle. If you move a conductive material,
Speaker 1: such as copper wire through a magnetic field, it will
Speaker 1: induce an electrical current to flow through the wire. Imagine
Speaker 1: the turbine has an axle that connects to some copper
Speaker 1: wire position between two permanent magnets. The north end of
Speaker 1: one magnet and the south end of the other magnet
Speaker 1: face the copper wire. As the turbine turns, so does
Speaker 1: the axle, which rotates the copper wire within the magnetic
Speaker 1: field of those magnets. This induces current to flow. In
Speaker 1: this example, it would be an alternating current, as the
Speaker 1: direction of electricity would reverse every time the copper wire
Speaker 1: moves from the magnetic field of one magnet to the
Speaker 1: field of the other one. That's the basic principle behind hydropower.
Speaker 1: You convert potential energy to kinetic energy, and then kinetic
Speaker 1: energy into electrical energy. Because Costa Rica has no shortage
Speaker 1: of rivers and dams, it can produce enough electricity this
Speaker 1: way to meet more than sevent its needs. After hydropower,
Speaker 1: the next big source comes from wind power. Costa Rica
Speaker 1: draws ten point to nine of its electrical power from
Speaker 1: wind farms. Wind farms use high tech windmills or wind
Speaker 1: turbines to generate electricity, and we just explained how water
Speaker 1: turbines work. Wind turbines work in pretty much the same way,
Speaker 1: only it's obviously wind rather than water that turns the blades.
Speaker 1: And while you might be able to count on water
Speaker 1: to continue flowing barring any disastrous droughts, wind sometimes just
Speaker 1: isn't there. During those times you can't really generate electricity.
Speaker 1: Costa Rica, being a relatively narrow country with two major
Speaker 1: oceans bordering it, fortunately gets a lot of wind throughout
Speaker 1: the year. Next in line, is geo thermal energy, which
Speaker 1: accounts for ten point to three percent of electricity generation
Speaker 1: in Costa Rica, just a hair behind wind power. Most
Speaker 1: geo thermal plants working a way similar to fossil fuel
Speaker 1: power plants. The only difference is that in traditional power plants,
Speaker 1: we burn fossil fuels in order to heat water into
Speaker 1: steam and use that steam to turn turbines. In geothermal plants,
Speaker 1: we rely upon the earth itself to heat water into steam.
Speaker 1: Deep beneath the surface of the Earth there are hot spots.
Speaker 1: Most of these are near geologically young volcanoes, of which
Speaker 1: Costa Rica has several. At these locations, cool water gets
Speaker 1: heated into steam, drilled down to those loots and create
Speaker 1: a loop where water can move down, heat up, turn
Speaker 1: into steam, move up a parallel path to turn a turbine,
Speaker 1: condense back into water, and start all over again, and
Speaker 1: you've got yourself a geothermal plant. Like hydropower and wind power,
Speaker 1: this method once again turns the turbine to provide mechanical
Speaker 1: energy and create a generator. Because if it ain't broke,
Speaker 1: don't fix it right. That leaves a little less than
Speaker 1: a single percentage point of electricity for biomass and solar power.
Speaker 1: Biomass refers to any sort of renewable fuel source like
Speaker 1: biodiesel or ethanol. Solar power converts the energy of photons
Speaker 1: into electricity, and it might come as a surprise that
Speaker 1: Costa Rica receives less than one percent of its electricity
Speaker 1: from solar panels. But solar panels, while on attractive technology,
Speaker 1: have some limitations. One is that they only generate electricity
Speaker 1: while there is sun exposure on cloudy days or at night.
Speaker 1: That's just not happening. Another is that they have a
Speaker 1: relatively low efficiency when it comes to converting the amount
Speaker 1: of energy hitting them into actual electricity. And third is
Speaker 1: that if you aren't putting that electricity to use right
Speaker 1: away or storing it in batteries, you'll lose it. Actually,
Speaker 1: that's the case with all electricity generators. You either use it,
Speaker 1: store it, or lose it. Traditional power plants monitor the
Speaker 1: demand for electricity and then either step up or step
Speaker 1: down operations to meet that demand. That's less of a
Speaker 1: concern for hydropower, geothermal or wind power sources, but with
Speaker 1: wind and solar power, you're not always generating electricity anyway.
Speaker 1: Costa Rica's goal is to switch to dependence on renewable
Speaker 1: energy sources by twenty thirty. Other countries have similar aspirations,
Speaker 1: with different distributions concentrating on various sources of power. Not
Speaker 1: every country has the access to good hydropower options, for example,
Speaker 1: but we can still look to Costa Rica for inspiration
Speaker 1: to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, as well as
Speaker 1: creating less pollution and reversing our contributions to climate change.
Speaker 1: To learn more about electricity, power plants and how we
Speaker 1: can use technology and more environmentally friendly ways, subscribe to
Speaker 1: The tech Stuff podcast. We publish on Wednesdays and Fridays
Speaker 1: and explore tech in a deep dive approach. I'll see
Speaker 1: you again soon.