Known as the Proyecto Eólico Guanacaste (PEG), the project is located in Guayabo de Bagaces. Originally slated to be commissioned in December 2009, the project has offered to open at 50% capacity beginning in December of this year in order to help the national power company (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad – ICE) offset the seasonal power shortages that Costa Rica, heavily reliant on hydroelectric power, sometimes experiences due to low water levels during the dry season.

In May 2006, Econergy and its partners submitted a bid to supply the ICE with 49.5 MW of wind energy, signing a 20-year power purchase agreement with ICE in December 2007. The PEG’s fifty-five 900kW turbines will be supplied by Enercon GmbH, the third largest manufacturer of wind turbines worldwide, based in Aurich, Germany.

Econergy owns a 45.9% interest in the project, and is currently negotiating for an additional 6%, which would give the company a controlling interest. The 45-meter turbines are expected to generate nearly a quarter million MWh per year, achieving a capacity factor some 55%; well above the 35% capacity factor of a typical wind farm.

Costa Rica is particularly interested in exploring the possibilities, as the country intends to replace 25 percent of its oil imports with renewable sources by 2010 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2021. According to Arnaldo Vieira de Carvalho, senior renewable energy specialist for the Inter-American Development Bank, “Central America is in a very good position to accelerate its biofuels movement.”

The Compañía Nacional de Bio Combustibles (“National Bio Fuels Company”), created early last year, has plans to build a biodiesel plant in the Pacific port town of Caldera, and Pan-Am Biofuels Inc. has acquired 1000 acres of farmland in Guanacaste to establish what the company is calling an “oil field” of Jatropha trees.

Jatropha is hardy, fast-growing, drought- and pest-resistant. The perennial plant, native to Central America, produces oil-bearing seeds within a couple of years, and can continue producing for up to 50 years.

The plant is not edible – in fact, it is toxic, and is considered invasive and undesirable in some places, since it can thrive in poor soil but does not yield food for humans or animals. However, it has potential as an alternative fuel, with an estimated cost of just $43 a barrel.

Investors and, indeed, the Costa Rican government, are proceeding with caution but the topic is a compelling one in today’s world, and over time we may begin to see Jatropha fields alongside Costa Rica’s traditional expanses of coffee, sugarcane and bananas.

See this article in Biodiesel Magazine for more information on biodiesel development in Central America.

Rancho Manzanillo will be an exclusive 538-acre gated golf and residential development including the 130-room Mandarin Oriental hotel, slated to open in 2010. The complex will feature branded Mandarin Oriental residences, beach and golf villas, and exclusive private homes, as well as an 18-hole Fred Couples Signature Championship golf course. Plans also call for 200 acres of protected tropical dry forest.

Amenities include three restaurants, three bars and a lounge, conference rooms, a 20,000 square-foot spa, a sophisticated fitness center, tennis courts, a golf pro shop and a series of multi-level outdoor swimming pools.

The development is located next to the ICT’s model tourism development project, Polo Turistico Peninsula de Papagayo, 25 minutes from the Daniel Oduber Quirós Airport in Liberia, Guanacaste.

The Rancho Manzanillo project is owned by by Corporacion Domaro, S.A. and Inversiones Costa Azul del Pacifico, S.A. It is being developed by T.F. Stone Companies of Dallas. Architecture for the resort will be provided by HKS, Inc. and landscape design by SWA Architects. Wilson & Associates is developing the hotel’s interior design, while hotel development services will be provided by Global Resort Development, Inc.

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group currently operates more than 10,000 hotel rooms in 23 countries.

The province of Guanacaste is Costa Rica’s hottest spot for tourism development–and the airport itself is credited with sparking the boom.

Ninety percent of the service to the Liberia airport is currently provided by US carriers, including Continental Airlines, which operates nearly 20 flights a week, American Airlines, Delta, Northwest, US Airways and United. A number of Canadian airlines also serve the airport, largely on a seasonal basis, along with domestic and Central American flights operated by Nature Air, Grupo Taca and Mexicana.

Costa Rica relies heavily on US tourism and investment–a fact that’s not likely to change any time soon–but as the Minister of Tourism, Carlos Ricardo Benavides, told La Nación, the nation’s leaders are also aware of the value of diversifying its markets.

First Choice Airways is the only European airline currently flying into Liberia, with a weekly flight to and from London. The ICT is presently negotiating with charter operators in the leading European markets in hopes of increasing European traffic to Guanacaste by late 2008 or early 2009. The head of the Guanacaste Chamber of Tourism noted that there is also interest in exploring the possibility of regularly scheduled commercial flights to the province from European destinations, particularly in England and France.