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Geothermal and goal for 94% renewables electricity in Nicaragua

Geothermal and goal for 94% renewables electricity in Nicaragua San Jacinto-Tizate, geothermal power plant, Ram Power/ Polaris Geothermal Nicaragua (source: Ram Power)
Alexander Richter 9 Jan 2013

Nicaragua has an ambitous 94% electricity from renewables plan and sees geothermal as a key component of this strategy, with the San Jacinto-Tizate plant by Ram Power at the center.

Published actually a while ago, an article talks about the ambitions of Nicaragua to be “94% powered by renewable sources by 2017”.

Today the country derives most of its electricity from imported petroleum with only a small portion of its domestic energy being generated through hydropower and geothermal.

The country has though ambitious plans with its National Development Plan that calls for Nicaragua’s electricity to be sourced at least 94% from renewables by 2017.

The project aims at improve infrastructure in the country, but also decrease power cost.

The San Jacinto-Tizate geothermal power plant and extension plays a key part in this plan. The area is considered one of the richest geothermal fields in the region and the plant by Ram Power Corp. (formerly Polaris Geothermal), has been providing power at much cheaper prices than sold on the wholesale market in the country. With current capacity and planned extension it will generate about 17% of the country’s total electricity needs.

The plant has recently reached commercial operation of its Phase II extension and plans an additional expansion through a bottoming cycle/ binary unit that could add an additional 10 MW to the current size of 72 MW.

With the geothermal plant and increased investment into hydro power generation the country could shed its dependency on foreign oil imports and reach its ambitious electricity goals.

On a side note, here is a great list of countries deriving more than 60% of their electricity from renewables.)

Source: Inhabitat, Clean Technica, Penn Energy