While power generated within the country is already fully based on renewables, to meet energy demand, the country still uses a small amount of imported oil.6 While Costa Rica has already achieved, 100% renewable power generation periodically in the past, data from 2019 shows it fell short, reaching 99% of power generated renewably. The country has set a target to reach 100% renewable power generation by 2030, with little specification regarding the sources of renewable power.
Concrete targets for diversified sources of renewable power can ensure that Costa Rica can consistently meet 100% renewable power and stay on track with 1.5°C pathways. Currently, the largest source of renewable power generation in Costa Rica is hydropower.5 In order to strengthen energy security, sources of power generation may need a more even distribution among hydropower, biomass, solar, wind or green hydrogen to even out high and low periods and protect against future climate variability.
Towards a fully decarbonised power sector
Costa Rica is already incredibly close to achieving full decarbonisation of power generation from renewable sources, such as hydropower, solar and wind. It produced 99% of its power supply from renewables in 2019 and already reached 100% renewable power generation periodically in past years, such as in 2017. This indicates that the country will have no difficulty in reaching its existing target to reach 100% renewable power production by 2030.
As Costa Rica benefits already from an almost completely decarbonised power supply, this is the opportunity for the country to drive decarbonisation in its transport sector through increasing the uptake of electric vehicles in the country’s fleet.
1 Climate Action Tracker. Climate Target Update Tracker: Costa Rica. (2020).
2 Climate Action Tracker. Costa Rica: Current Policy Projections. (2020).
3 Gobierno de Costa Rica. Contribución Nacionalmente Determinada. (2020).
4 Government of Costa Rica. National Decarbonization Plan. (2019).
5 International Energy Agency. IEA Country Profiles: Costa Rica. (2021).
6 Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía. Second Biennial Update Report. (Costa Rica, 2019).
7 Ministerio de Salud Costa Rica. Plan Nacional para la Gestión Integral de Residuos 2016-2021. (2016).
8 Ministerio de Ambient y Energia Costa Rica. Reforma Declara Moratoria Nacional para explotación petrolera. Sistema Costarricense de Información Jurídica (2019).
9 Salgado, L., Dumas, M., Feoli, M. & Cedeño, M. Mercado doméstico voluntario de carbono de Costa Rica: Un instrumento haciala C-Neutralidad. (2013).
10 Ministerio de Ambiente y Energía – Gobierno de Costa Rica. Plan Nacional de Energía 2015-2030. Plan Nacional De Plan Nacional De Observación (2015).
11 Gobierno de Costa Rica. Segundo Informe Biennial De Actualización: Costa Rica. (2016). doi:10.1787/eco_outlook-v2016-2-graph80-fr
12 Gobierno de Costa Rica, MINAE & MOPT. Plan Nacional de Transporte Eléctrico 2018-2030. (2019).
13 Gobierno de Costa Rica. Ley 9518: Incentivos y promoción para el transport eléctrico. Sistema Costarricense de Información Jurídica (2017).
14 Ministerio de Ambiente y Energia Costa Rica. Estrategia para la ganadería baja en carbono en Costa Rica. 110 (2015).
15 While global cost-effective pathways assessed by the IPCC Special Report 1.5°C provide useful guidance for an upper-limit of emissions trajectories for developed countries, they underestimate the feasible space for such countries to reach net zero earlier. The current generation of models tend to depend strongly on land-use sinks outside of currently developed countries and include fossil fuel use well beyond the time at which these could be phased out, compared to what is understood from bottom-up approaches. The scientific teams which provide these global pathways constantly improve the technologies represented in their models – and novel CDR technologies are now being included in new studies focused on deep mitigation scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement. A wide assessment database of these new scenarios is not yet available; thus, we rely on available scenarios which focus particularly on BECCS as a net-negative emission technology. Accordingly, we do not yet consider land-sector emissions (LULUCF) and other CDR approaches.
16 Least-cost pathways analysed here assumes already a certain amount of carbon dioxide removal technologies, in this case bioenergy carbon capture and storage (BECCS).
Costa Ricaʼs power mix
terawatt-hour per year
- Negative emissions technologies via BECCS
- Unabated fossil
- Nuclear and/or fossil with CCS
- Renewables incl. biomass
Costa Ricaʼs power sector emissions and carbon intensity
MtCO₂/yr
- Historical emissions
- SSP1 High CDR reliance
- SSP1 Low CDR reliance
- High energy demand - Low CDR reliance
- Low energy demand
- 100%RE
1.5°C compatible power sector benchmarks
Carbon intensity, renewable generation share, and fossil fuel generation share from illustrative 1.5°C pathways for Costa Rica
Indicator | 2019 | 2030 | 2040 | 2050 | Decarbonised power sector by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carbon intensity of power gCO₂/kWh | 10 | −10 to 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Relative to reference year in % | −240 to −100% | −167 to −125% | −172 to −145% |
Indicator | 2019 | 2030 | 2040 | 2050 | Year of phase-out |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Share of unabated coal Percent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Share of unabated gas Percent | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Share of renewable energy Percent | 99 | 100 | 100 | 100 | |
Share of unabated fossil fuel Percent | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Investments
Demand shifting towards the power sector
The 1.5°C compatible pathways analysed here tend to show a strong increase in power generation and installed capacities across time. This is because end-use sectors (such as transport, buildings or industry) are increasingly electrified under 1.5°C compatible pathways, shifting energy demand to the power sector. Globally, the “high energy demand” pathway entails a particularly high degree of renewable energy-based electrification across the various sectors, and sees a considerable increase in renewable energy capacities over time. See the power section for capacities deployment under the various models.
Costa Ricaʼs renewable electricity investments
Billion USD / yr
Yearly investment requirements in renewable energy
Across the set of 1.5°C pathways that we have analysed, annual investments in renewable energy excluding BECCS increase in Costa Rica to be on the order of USD 1 to 2 billion by 2030 and USD 1 to 4 billion by 2040 depending on the scenario considered. The ‘high energy demand, low CDR reliance’ pathway shows a particularly high increase in renewable capacity investments, which could be driven by an increase of electrification of end-use sectors and/or growing energy demand and expansion of electricity access. Other modelled have relatively lower investments in renewables and rely to varying degrees on other technologies and measures such as energy efficiency and negative emissions technologies, of which the latter can require high up-front investments.