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Biogas Journal | <strong>Autumn</strong>_<strong>2017</strong> English Issue<br />
Gas storage and<br />
digester of the plant.<br />
ICE’s Biogas Programme<br />
Over a decade ago and in the framework of ICE’s Plan<br />
for the Promotion and Development of Non-Conventional<br />
Renewable Energies, the Biogas Programme for<br />
the generation of electricity from biogas obtained from<br />
agricultural and agro-industrial biowaste was established.<br />
It is noteworthy that Costa Rica’s electrical grid<br />
comprises about 90% renewable energies, to the extent<br />
that Costa Rica is able to meet its electrical demand<br />
with 100% renewable energies for the majority of the<br />
year. However, 80% comes from hydropower, which has<br />
been greatly influenced by climate change and irregular<br />
rain patterns in the last few years. For this reason, ICE<br />
aims to promote other renewable energy sources, such<br />
as biomass, PV and biogas.<br />
The biogas programme received support from GIZ for<br />
the development of technical capacities for the evaluation<br />
of biogas projects. Back then, 25 employees from<br />
different departments were trained. Today, two persons<br />
work in the programme, offering technical consultancy<br />
for the development of biogas projects to the private<br />
sector. Over fifty-one projects have been evaluated so<br />
far; seventeen of those were developed successfully<br />
and three more are currently in the pipeline.<br />
According to Carolina Hernández, technical consultant<br />
and coordinator of the programme, agro-industrial<br />
companies in Costa Rica are required to treat their effluents,<br />
and for this reason many of them seek solutions<br />
such as biogas, which offers complementary benefits,<br />
for example, energy production for self-consumption.<br />
Hernandez explains, that the main reason more projects<br />
have not been developed is the lack of adequate<br />
financing conditions for the agricultural sector. Currently,<br />
most of the credits offered for this sector are<br />
exclusively for the purchase of agricultural machinery.<br />
Costa Rica has 3.9 MW installed capacity of biogas at<br />
present, and the potential is estimated at 91 MW when<br />
Photo: Giannina Bontempo<br />
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