Details laid out for support of Costa Rica for project in Bolivia

Laguna Colorada, Bolivia (source: flickr/ Paolo Lucciola, creative commons)

Alexander Richter 28 Apr 2015

The details of the assistance and technical cooperation that the Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) will provide the National Electricity Company (ENDE) Corporation in Bolivia for the geothermal project of Laguna Colorada, are jointly worked by experts from both entities and an official document would be ready by early May, the president of ENDE Corporation, Eduardo Paz said.

He noted that this document shall be the covenant that consolidates the “Memorandum of Understanding in Energy and specific in the Field of Geothermal Energy” signed in February. The goal is to support Costa Rica with technical assistance, human resource training and identification of geothermal potential in Bolivia. Mr Paz explained that the technical assistance provided will focus on management contracts specialized in drilling processes and production processes of geothermal energy, and to exercise the functions of control and supervision of the project’s wells.

“We will send professionals to Costa Rica to do internships, and on their return to Bolivia, they would then join the ongoing project,” said Paz. The parameters of training, the number of people to send and other details are also being defined and consolidated with the signing of the agreement in Costa Rica. “The project is implemented in the Eduardo Abaroa National Park which forces to carry out special studies that avoid making any environmental damage” he said.

Phase one of the initial stage of the project phase is funded by JICA Japan with an investment of $ 24.5 million and a counterpart of NSDS $ 5.9 million. Phase two of the first stage does not yet have funding, but the Government is in negotiations to extend a credit line with Japan. During this phase, complementary to drilling geothermal wells, pipeline construction will also take place alongside with the construction of geothermal plant of 50 MW and consulting services for engineering and construction supervision of products of the plant.

In 2012-2013 the preparatory phase called “zero phase” took place, which consisted of five tests developed in existing wells. The geothermal project foresees a total capacity of 100 megawatts (MW), but will be implemented in two phases. Mr Paz estimates to generate the first 50 MW of geothermal power in Laguna Colorada by 2019 and that the process will require a total investment of 260 million dollars.

Source: Entorno Inteligente