German Wind Farm

German Firm to Construct Wind Farm in Costa Rica | Costa Rica Travel News

German Firm to Construct Wind Farm in Costa Rica

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Wind, Water and Natural Steam: The Energy of the Future, Now in Costa Rica.



The German Company Juwi, based in Wörrstadt in the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate together with its European and American project partners have started the construction of what is to be the largest wind farm in Central America in Guanacaste. The project, known as the Proyecto Eolico Guanacaste (PEG), is to be Juwi’s biggest construction so far.

The Costa Rican company Saret will undertake the actual construction and German-based Enercon will supply the 55 turbines, 55E-44 models of 9000KW each with a capacity of 49.5 megawatts. The turbines are being shipped across the Atlantic by Enercon and upon their completion Juwi and Enercon will oversee operation of the machines. The structures will not be the highest of their genre but will produce an astounding 240 million Kilowatts per hour (KWh) annually, and that is no less that 55% of the utilization factor of the country, with 70,000 homes covered.

Construction is planned to finish this year and the wind farm should start generating energy around the end of 2008, beginning of 2009. It will continue to produce electricity annually from December to May, which is the dry season, when hydropower is almost out of action and most of the energy has to be imported at a very high cost.

For Juwi, this marks the beginning of a Central American alliance; with annual revenue of $590 million, it promises an affordable and safe power supply for Costa Rica and new jobs in Costa Rica for the Ticos. Although the company is well spread over the world with 300 turbines located in Germany and in France, it is planning to expand in the United States, Argentina, Poland and the Czech Republic. The PEG, however, will be its biggest project so far.
The contract was awarded to a trio of companies in 2006 after they proposed the project to the Costa Rican Insitute of Electricity (ICE) to provide the country with more energy. Wind power and water power have now joined hands in Costa Rica; maybe solar power will follow.

When nature can provide us with all the renewable energy we need, without causing danger to the environment and at a lower cost, it seems that this is indeed the energy of the future. Costa Rica is a beautiful country and its preservation is always a controversial topic these days, with the extensive development that is booming in the area and Costa Rica Tourism always growing. This is what the country depends on, yet a fine balance must be found between the conservation, eco-tourism, profits and the creation of jobs.

These developments are unlikely to stop now, but efforts have to be made in order to find harmony and preserve what is left now of the primary forests that are slowly disappearing, not only in this country but also on a worldwide basis. If nature provides us with the means, maybe it is about time we learned how to take advantage of these sources of clean, safe and cheaper energy.