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Costa Rica Has Been Running Fossil Fuel-Free For 75 Straight Days

Costa Rica Has Been Running Fossil Fuel-Free For 75 Straight Days

Melbourne might be well on its way to becoming a greened-out, eco-friendly dream, but for now, the tiny Latin American country of Costa Rica has got them beat. For 75 days straight, Costa Rica has powered the entire country with clean, affordable energy without burning a single measly fossil fuel. That means no coal or petroleum. Nada. Zilch.

That incredible feat was made possible by the combination of fortuitous weather conditions (heavy rainfall) with a sophisticated infrastructure of hydropower plants, supplemented by geothermal, solar, wind and biomass energy sources.

Central-America-Costa-Rica-Jewels-9-volcano
(Photo: NatHab.com)

Because an energy infrastructure totally reliant on hydropower could be vulnerable to droughts, the government has just approved a $958 million geothermal project to take advantage of the country’s many volcanoes. Granted, Costa Rica is a small country – only 51,000 square kilometres and 4.8 million people – and because the government doesn’t have to spend money on defence funding or manufacturing, there is more cash to splash investing in renewable energy projects, but the rest of the world could probably stand to take a few notes.

(Lead image: TourCostaRica.com)

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