WEBVTT - Costa Rica and Renewable Energy 0:00:03.680 --> 0:00:05.240 How would you like to live in a country that 0:00:05.320 --> 0:00:09.200 depends solely on clean renewable energy. Well, pack your bags, 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:12.879 we're moving the Costa Rica. I'm Jonathan Strickland and this 0:00:13.000 --> 0:00:19.560 is tex Stuff. Daily. Eco Watch reports that the country 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.079 of Costa Rica in Central America has run on nothing 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:26.000 but renewable energy sources for three hundred days. That's according 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:29.440 to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity, which in turn 0:00:29.520 --> 0:00:33.159 pulls data from the National Center for Energy Control. And 0:00:33.240 --> 0:00:36.360 that's a record breaker. Back in two thousand fifteen, Costa 0:00:36.479 --> 0:00:39.240 Rica set the record of two hundred nine nine days 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:44.000 at renewable energy reliance. Last year they had a little setback, 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:46.800 with just two d seventy one days out of the year. 0:00:47.400 --> 0:00:51.440 That renewable energy comes from several different sources. The overwhelming 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:54.440 majority of it, at seventy eight point to six percent, 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:58.640 is from hydropower. This is largely possible because Costa Rica 0:00:58.680 --> 0:01:02.000 has a high concentration per capita of rivers and dams. 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:05.880 In twenty sixteen, the country brought two big hydropower plants online, 0:01:06.080 --> 0:01:10.360 one of which the Riventazon facility, is the second largest 0:01:10.400 --> 0:01:14.480 in the country. The first would be a little thing 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:19.240 called the Panama Canal. Hydropower uses the movement of water 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:22.240 to generate electricity. Typically, the way this is done is 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:24.680 that you create a channel for water from a high 0:01:24.720 --> 0:01:28.440 elevation to flow down to a lower elevation. In other words, 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:31.520 the potential energy of the water converts to kinetic energy 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:33.960 as it moves through the channel. Gravity is doing all 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:36.280 the work for you. On its way down, the water 0:01:36.360 --> 0:01:38.800 collides with the blades of a turbine. The force of 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.680 the moving water causes the turbine to rotate. This rotating 0:01:42.680 --> 0:01:47.120 turbine provides mechanical energy to a generator. Generators work on 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:50.520 a pretty simple principle. If you move a conductive material, 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:53.400 such as copper wire through a magnetic field, it will 0:01:53.440 --> 0:01:56.640 induce an electrical current to flow through the wire. Imagine 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:59.320 the turbine has an axle that connects to some copper 0:01:59.320 --> 0:02:02.440 wire position between two permanent magnets. The north end of 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:04.720 one magnet and the south end of the other magnet 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:07.840 face the copper wire. As the turbine turns, so does 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:10.880 the axle, which rotates the copper wire within the magnetic 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:14.520 field of those magnets. This induces current to flow. In 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:16.720 this example, it would be an alternating current, as the 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:19.280 direction of electricity would reverse every time the copper wire 0:02:19.320 --> 0:02:21.520 moves from the magnetic field of one magnet to the 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:25.960 field of the other one. That's the basic principle behind hydropower. 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.359 You convert potential energy to kinetic energy, and then kinetic 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:33.280 energy into electrical energy. Because Costa Rica has no shortage 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:35.920 of rivers and dams, it can produce enough electricity this 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:39.920 way to meet more than sevent its needs. After hydropower, 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:43.399 the next big source comes from wind power. Costa Rica 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:46.359 draws ten point to nine of its electrical power from 0:02:46.400 --> 0:02:49.720 wind farms. Wind farms use high tech windmills or wind 0:02:49.720 --> 0:02:53.880 turbines to generate electricity, and we just explained how water 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.919 turbines work. Wind turbines work in pretty much the same way, 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.520 only it's obviously wind rather than water that turns the blades. 0:03:01.639 --> 0:03:03.240 And while you might be able to count on water 0:03:03.280 --> 0:03:08.560 to continue flowing barring any disastrous droughts, wind sometimes just 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:13.240 isn't there. During those times you can't really generate electricity. 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:16.640 Costa Rica, being a relatively narrow country with two major 0:03:16.680 --> 0:03:20.320 oceans bordering it, fortunately gets a lot of wind throughout 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:23.880 the year. Next in line, is geo thermal energy, which 0:03:23.880 --> 0:03:27.360 accounts for ten point to three percent of electricity generation 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:30.760 in Costa Rica, just a hair behind wind power. Most 0:03:30.760 --> 0:03:33.560 geo thermal plants working a way similar to fossil fuel 0:03:33.600 --> 0:03:37.080 power plants. The only difference is that in traditional power plants, 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:39.600 we burn fossil fuels in order to heat water into 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.600 steam and use that steam to turn turbines. In geothermal plants, 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:46.720 we rely upon the earth itself to heat water into steam. 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.840 Deep beneath the surface of the Earth there are hot spots. 0:03:50.160 --> 0:03:53.840 Most of these are near geologically young volcanoes, of which 0:03:53.880 --> 0:03:57.800 Costa Rica has several. At these locations, cool water gets 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.600 heated into steam, drilled down to those loots and create 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.440 a loop where water can move down, heat up, turn 0:04:03.480 --> 0:04:06.760 into steam, move up a parallel path to turn a turbine, 0:04:07.120 --> 0:04:10.440 condense back into water, and start all over again, and 0:04:10.480 --> 0:04:14.840 you've got yourself a geothermal plant. Like hydropower and wind power, 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:18.240 this method once again turns the turbine to provide mechanical 0:04:18.320 --> 0:04:21.960 energy and create a generator. Because if it ain't broke, 0:04:22.400 --> 0:04:25.160 don't fix it right. That leaves a little less than 0:04:25.200 --> 0:04:28.960 a single percentage point of electricity for biomass and solar power. 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:31.960 Biomass refers to any sort of renewable fuel source like 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.920 biodiesel or ethanol. Solar power converts the energy of photons 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:38.680 into electricity, and it might come as a surprise that 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.320 Costa Rica receives less than one percent of its electricity 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.920 from solar panels. But solar panels, while on attractive technology, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.640 have some limitations. One is that they only generate electricity 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:52.080 while there is sun exposure on cloudy days or at night. 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.560 That's just not happening. Another is that they have a 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.320 relatively low efficiency when it comes to converting the amount 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:01.080 of energy hitting them into actual electricity. And third is 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.240 that if you aren't putting that electricity to use right 0:05:03.279 --> 0:05:07.040 away or storing it in batteries, you'll lose it. Actually, 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.280 that's the case with all electricity generators. You either use it, 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:13.599 store it, or lose it. Traditional power plants monitor the 0:05:13.640 --> 0:05:16.240 demand for electricity and then either step up or step 0:05:16.279 --> 0:05:19.560 down operations to meet that demand. That's less of a 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:23.640 concern for hydropower, geothermal or wind power sources, but with 0:05:23.800 --> 0:05:27.080 wind and solar power, you're not always generating electricity anyway. 0:05:27.680 --> 0:05:30.960 Costa Rica's goal is to switch to dependence on renewable 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.680 energy sources by twenty thirty. Other countries have similar aspirations, 0:05:34.720 --> 0:05:38.359 with different distributions concentrating on various sources of power. Not 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:42.080 every country has the access to good hydropower options, for example, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.480 but we can still look to Costa Rica for inspiration 0:05:44.560 --> 0:05:47.159 to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, as well as 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:50.760 creating less pollution and reversing our contributions to climate change. 0:05:50.920 --> 0:05:53.440 To learn more about electricity, power plants and how we 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.760 can use technology and more environmentally friendly ways, subscribe to 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.719 The tech Stuff podcast. We publish on Wednesdays and Fridays 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.719 and explore tech in a deep dive approach. I'll see 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:03.520 you again soon.