Costa Rica has secured funding that will enable the Central American country to undertake a wide-ranging study into offshore wind.
The Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI) and the Republic of Korea, through the Korea-CABEI Single Donor Trust Fund (KTF), approved the $600,000 non-reimbursable “technical cooperation”.
The financial package will go towards evaluating the environmental conditions in the North Pacific coast of Costa Rica, as well as detail the necessary investments in marine-coastal infrastructure that allow the development of offshore wind energy in the country.
The cooperation has been granted to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) and the Government of Costa Rica.
Studies will address the challenges, risks and opportunities in the development, installation and operation of wind farms.
Likewise, the studies include the design of the buoy monitoring system for data collection and the evaluation of the marine-coastal infrastructure for the development of offshore wind energy projects, which include market analysis, engineering technical recommendations and design.
CABEI Executive President Dante Mossi said: “Costa Rica is one of our founding partners at the forefront of sustainable energy generation in the region, something that over the years at CABEI we have supported for the development of your projects.
“We are very excited that through this Technical Cooperation the necessary inputs are acquired for the development of an offshore wind farm, which would revitalise the national economy by increasing the diversification of the electrical network, improving local and regional markets and preparing the country for the increase in the demand for the service as foreseen by the authorities”.
Also, as part of the cooperation, support will be provided for the development of a preliminary environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA).
The execution of the technical cooperation is expected to begin during the second quarter of 2022 and end within 18 months.