Costa Rica's ICE contracts 166 MW of solar, wind from private sector

Costa Rican power utility Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) has signed letters of commitment with private-sector players to secure 166 MW of new solar and wind energy as part of its efforts to meet the nation’s electricity demand.

The capacity will be provided by five solar and four wind farms, which will commence operations in 2026 and 2027.

The solar projects are: Numu, Los Tecales, Colorado, Los Mangos and Las Canas. The wind projects are: Las Pavas, La Montosa, San Jorge and Movasa II. All of them will be constructed in Guanacaste province, northwestern Costa Rica.

The projects were selected in a tender during the first half of the year. Apart from formalising the letters of commitment, the project promoters also need ICE to accept their feasibility reports, and other agencies to sign on the environmental feasibility declarations, public generation service concessions, and connection contracts before construction can commence, the government-owned utility said.

ICE expects to add more geothermal and hydroelectric plants to grid over the course of this decade to mitigate the variability of the higher share of solar and wind, the company said.

The combined capacity from private-sector projects and ICE’s own wind and solar will enable the utility to stock up on energy and prepare for the El Nino droughts.

“We are pleased to announce the progress of these clean generation projects by the private sector. They will join the repowering of Tejona [wind farm] in Tilaran and our new San Antonio solar plant in La Uruca. We will have greater provisions for phenomena such as El Nino,” said Verny Rojas, ICE's Electricity Manager.

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