Nicaragua Goes Green

No one likes it when the lights goes out, but here in Nicaragua daily rolling blackouts throughout the country was an accepted fact of life. However Nicaragua's government worked hard and put an end to the blackouts, but struggled to pay the higher energy costs when oil hit $147 US a barrel.

So in 2008 a $90 million dollar project started to install 19 wind turbines on the south west shores of Lake Nicaragua near San Jorge (Rivas). Operating successfully since early 2009, the wind turbines have saved the country $9 million dollars (at current prices) yearly, contributing to 6% of the country's energy needs.

Long term plans are to reduce their dependency on oil to 3% by 2013, relying not only on wind power but also geothermal from volcanoes, sugarcane based ethanol and hydroelectric from rivers. Hopefully these last three methods will provide 34% of the needed power.

Wind turbines on the shores of Lake Nicaragua