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Sunday 26 October 2008,
San José, Costa Rica
Germany Behind Renewable
Energy Drive in
Guanacaste
(Infocom) — Germany’s
Environment Vice
Minister, Michael
Mueller, said at an
official visit to Costa
Rica that the country is
“a model for Latin
America in topics such
as climate change and
biodiversity” and
encouraged Ticos to
persevere in their goal
to produce all energy
from renewable sources
by 2021.
“Costa Rica already
generates more than 90
percent of its
electricity through
renewable sources,”
Mueller indicated. “It
will be exemplary how
this country will become
the first country in the
world where energy
supplies will come from
100 percent renewable
energies, that is, will
become a carbon-neutral
country, by 2021 on the
200th anniversary of
independence.”
Mueller visited the
country at a time when
Juwi Group, a firm
headquartered in the
German city of Wörrstadt,
is developing the
Guanacaste Wind Energy
Park. In the opinion of
the German Federal
Ministry of the
Environment, this
project is a good
example of success
technology and knowledge
transfer to Central
America — as projects
such as this help the
country depend less on
traditional energy
imports, creates jobs
and contributes to the
protection of global
climate.
Germany can be proud
that German companies
with investments in wind
energy and other
renewable energies are
involved in this
process,” Mueller said.
“That’s how we can
transfer our success
experience of 20 years
in the development of
renewable energies.”
In Guanacaste, Juwi is
building — along with
local and international
partners — what will be
Central America’s
largest wind energy
facility, with a total
of 55 wind generators
with total capacity of
49.5 megawatts. This
means that annual
electricity production
from the park will be
240 million kilowatt
hours, or enough to
power some 70,000 homes
according to European
standards.
“Construction of the
wind energy park, which
began in 2008, is having
good progress. On
average, two or three
towers are installed
every week. This project
is a milestone in the
history of the company,
as it represents our
first incursion in the
wind energy market in
the Latin American
region,” said Juwi
founder and president
Matthias Willenbacher,
who was part of Vice
Minister Mueller’s tour,
and who only a few weeks
ago was recognized with
the 2008 Climate
Protection Award in
Germany.
The German provider of
towers and wind turbines
for this project is
Enercon, which is
shipping by boat a total
of 55 E-44 turbines. In
the future, Juwi and
Enercon will be in
charge of operating the
wind energy park,
although Juwi has the
biggest stake in the
project as its
developer.
Costa Rica will benefit
from this wind energy
project — which is
expected to plug into
the national energy
network in 2009 —
particularly during the
dry season
(December-May), when the
plant will continuously
generate power. This is
the time of the year
when the country has to
resort to generating
electricity by burning
fossil fuels such as
diesel and bunker (which
must be imported at
increasingly high
price), because
precipitation levels
decline and
hydroelectric dams dry
up.
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