The first words of the anthem of Guanacaste are: “Guanacaste is the flowery land, which to the homeland was given with love, in its fertile fields life grows proud with grace and honor…” And how true these lines are!
Due to its geography and topography, Guanacaste is a privileged province: it possesses conditions for agricultural, tourism, and industrial development. Additionally, it is a region where within a few kilometers, there are renewable energy generation projects from various sources such as hydroelectric, solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass (Renewable Energy Hub Pelón de la Bajura – Miravalles).
All of this fosters the development of what I call renewable energy tourism.
Despite all these promising conditions, Guanacaste, like the rest of the country, faces the challenge of further decarbonizing its economy, particularly in the transportation sector, municipal waste management, and further developing energy efficiency measures.
What guidelines would make a difference? I specify and discuss three:
1) Energy Efficiency: Solar radiation in Guanacaste is among the best in the country, making it a highly attractive region for harnessing this energy source. While some initiatives are already underway in electricity production using photovoltaic systems, there isn’t enough discussion about the development of solar thermal systems (utilizing heat from the sun).
Harnessing solar radiation seems particularly intriguing for the hospitality sector, which requires significant amounts of hot water for its restaurants, communal and private showers, heated pools, and other amenities as well as other industries that require hot water to develop their processes and products. Installing solar water heaters to heat and store hot water could significantly improve energy efficiency in many homes and businesses.
2) Transportation Sector: There is a significant need to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. However, replacing these energy sources with more environmentally friendly options involves addressing technical-logistical, legal, and economic challenges. One of the most viable alternatives in the short and medium term is biodiesel production using non-edible vegetable oils and/or used cooking oil. The latter option is already available in neighborhoods, university cafeterias, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, and government institution cafeterias, among others.
Biodiesel can be used as a substitute for petroleum-based diesel in a large part of the vehicle fleet and heavy machinery, with minimal adjustments required for the vehicles. It can also be blended within a wide range with conventional diesel, demonstrating a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Biodiesel can be produced in various ways, with one of the most common methods involving mixing methanol and used cooking oil through a combination of esterification/transesterification reactions catalyzed by a catalyst. One of the major technical challenges of biodiesel production is ensuring its quality for use as a fuel. This requires that the sources of vegetable oil or used cooking oil contain minimal amounts of water and solids, and that the reactor producing the biodiesel overcomes the limitations posed by the chemical reactions themselves (such as mass transfer).
Other biofuels, (such as synthetic diesel and gasoline, as well as green hydrogen), have the potential to be implemented on a large scale in Guanacaste in the more distant future, considering their costs and technical and logistical challenges.
3) Municipal Waste: One of the primary short-term solutions to the costly management of municipal waste in many Guanacaste municipalities involves transporting these wastes over long distances and depositing them in landfills. However, this approach does not promote the biodegradation of deposited waste and instead generates significant methane emissions. Methane has a much higher greenhouse effect potential compared to carbon dioxide.
In just a few months,Guanacaste will see its first gasifier in operation, which will receive inorganic waste from several municipalities in the province. In our country, approximately 50% of waste is inorganic, depending on whether it originates in urban or rural areas. The question of what to do with organic waste remains open. One of the most sustainable alternatives is composting.
Composting can be developed at both household scale, (especially in homes with sufficient yard space to develop this treatment system), or at municipal scale. Guanacaste local governments interested in promoting composting could initiate a pilot program in one of their districts or neighborhoods. They could educate residents on proper organic waste separation to generate high-quality compost, which ideally could be used in agriculture. Subsequently, they could expand composting to other neighborhoods and districts within their municipalities.
Different types of municipal composting technologies exist depending on the available space, machinery availability, and economic and logistical resources. If municipal composting is successfully implemented, municipalities could even offer their services to other municipalities. The compost produced could be sold to agricultural, hospitality, and other industries, thereby avoiding methane emissions into the atmosphere and the expenditure of millions of colones per month, potentially turning it into a source of income instead.
In conclusion, Guanacaste has significant opportunities to elevate its sustainability to higher levels. Simultaneously, these initiatives could translate into economic prosperity by providing local employment, income from carbon credit sales, and other benefits.
Gabriel Murillo Morales holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering, a Master’s degree in Renewable Energies, and a PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering. He has lived in Bagaces, Guanacaste. Currently, he is conducting postdoctoral research on utilizing residual biomass for biofuel synthesis at the Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (CEES) at Prairie View A&M University, Texas, United States.
This article is the author’s opinion and does not necessarily reflect the editorial position of this medium. If you want to share an opinion article, send an email to [email protected]
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