Costa Rica secures $670 million loan for hydroelectric dam

The Inter-American Development Bank (BID) approved $670 million in loans to finance the Reventazón Hydroelectric Dam – the most complex hydroelectric project ever built in Costa Rica – near the Caribbean slope town of Siquirres.

The 305.5 MW project is expected to provide energy for some 525,000 families and comes with an estimated price tag of $1.1 billion. It is slated to start generating energy in 2016 (TT, April 15, 2011).

Funding for the project will go to “the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a 305.5 MW hydroelectric plant and its associated facilities including transmission lines, substations and access roads,” according to the bank’s website.

Costa Rica currently generates about 90 percent of its electricity from renewable resources, namely hydroelectricity. The country aims to reach 95 percent renewable energy generation by 2014, and by 2021 – the same year it hopes to become the world’s first carbon-neutral country – Costa Rica wants to generate 100 percent of its electricity from renewable resources (TT, Dec. 08, 2011).