Low Water Level Worries Electrical Executives
Low water levels behind Arenal Dam are raising fears of authorities that electricity will have to be generated by the much more expensive method using fossil fuels if electrical demand for the new two months is to be met. In the first three months of this year, the level of Costa Rica’s main generating reservoir has dropped some 10 feet, according to the daily La Nacion.
Water for all purposes is low in the country this dry season due to the the climatic phenomenon known as el Nino and the season is not due to end until May when, usually, rains resume.
But engineers for the Costa Rican Electrical Institute (ICE, its Spanish acronym) have high hopes for an energy source far less expensive and less polluting than fossil fuels—the sugar cane stalks that form the principal byproduct in the making of granular sugar. Although this process only accounts for a minor amount of electrical generation currently, conversion of sugar cane refineries is relatively simple without affecting the production of granular sugar.
ICE engineers speculate that generators could be on line and producing 60 megawatts by 2009. In the process, the cane that is pressed and has given up its juices is then burned, giving up still more vapor that passes under high pressures through the turbines. Three large sugar producing plants exist in Guanacaste province, northeast of San Jose.
Costa Rica, a small country hungry for energy, is no stranger to alternate energy sources. Currently a large generation plant exists on the flanks of Rincon de la Vieja Volcano using super-heated volcanic steam and in other parts of the country a few generators use wind power.
During the past two decades, governments have attempted to wean the country away from using supplemental diesel generators during the dry season when water levels behind dams usually drop.