ICE postponed to 2018 new geothermal projects in Guanacaste

Project includes two plants that already have funding guaranteed by Congress

Complete work bring clean energy to supply 200,000 homes

August 06th,2014.

Works to raise I Borinquen geothermal project in Cañas Dulces Liberia, Guanacaste, and have the necessary funding and ongoing studies. However, the start of construction would be by 2018.

The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) could not advance the start of the work because the necessary drilling equipment are in use Pailas II, another geothermal province.

Borinquen is a two-phase project, with a capacity of 55 megawatts (MW) each, so that complete, would power about 200,000 homes. Build each project would take about four years, and the high peaks of the works, would be a source of employment for 1,000 people.

To pay for the plants, the International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the European Investment Bank (EIB) granted loans worth $ 958 million to develop both I and II and Borinquen Pailas II.

In early July, the Legislature approved funding to 25 July, from Nicoya, President Luis Guillermo Solis gave "the starting signal" for these clean energy projects.

For now, the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) has already completed the feasibility stage for Borinquen I, which included the drilling of four wells over 2,000 feet deep in the field.

That process was necessary to check that the selected area has geothermal potential.

Now the viability conferred the National Environmental Technical Secretariat (Setena) is pending. No matter when you get that endorsement, the ICE will not start until at Cañas Dulces have completed works Pailas II, because the Institute has only three drilling machines nationwide.

Two Pailas II are used in a production well and one reinjection, while the third is in the Miravalles pioneering project in the canton of Bagaces.

Find new sources of clean energy is one of the ways considered by the Government and ICE to halt the rise in electricity rates, which in 2013 was 30%.

Read more: 'La Nación'