| Keywords |
Abstract 1: Central America, economic value, social valuation, electricity demand, electricity markets -- ABSTRACT 2: capacity building, awareness, CDM, INTERNET technologies |
| Abstract |
In Central America, growing population, expanding economies and new markets, result in an annual rate of the electricity demand of about 6% through the year 2020. This, together with the fluctuations in the world energy markets, require to develop more reliable domestic environmentally sound electrical systems, which are precondition for a sound social and economic development of the region. Geothermal energy can provide such a stable electricity supply, in contrast to many alternative domestic renewable energy resources, such as climate event dependent hydropower, which covers actually about half of Central Americas electricity demand. However, the huge regional geothermal potential of about 8.8 GW using today's technology, and about 13.2 GW capacity potential "enhanced technology" for power generation, which exceeds the entire electric capacity installed in Central America in 2003 - about 6.5 GW - is practically unused (0.4 GW installed geothermal capacity; 2003). However, instead of accelerating the development of indigenous, renewable energy resources, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua have become more dependent on imported fossil fuels to supply their growing electricity demand. On the other hand, Guatemala is focusing on a large increase of hydroelectric power production, and Costa Rica is depending on an over-developed hydroelectric power program, which it tries expand in future even more. This makes the electricity generation of Guatemala and Costa Rica very vulnerable to climate events as droughts and other natural phenomena. So it becomes evident, that geothermal energy, an alternative to hydropower, which is not dependent on climatic events, has yet to receive the attention it deserves. The analysis of the economic, social, and environmental benefits of geothermal energy in the Central American region compared to fossil fuel resources and to other renewables as hydropower, wind energy and solar energy, shows that geothermal energy has numerous direct and secondary benefits. However these benefits are generally not considered by national decision makers, who often only consider - as private investors do - only purely economic benefits of energy projects. They need to include social costs and benefits of geothermal energy generation - expressed in monetary terms - to make investments in energy projects, which are beneficial in a social perspective and so to contribute to establish a base for the social and economic development of Central American region. |