BACK	ENERGY: Costa Rica Taps the Sun

With total potential solar radiation equivalent to 123 million barrels of oil, Costa Rica taking small, firm steps in using solar energy.

Several communities in the most far flung and impoverished areas of the country have made the jump from candles to electric light thanks to solar panels.

Similarly, public telephones have been installed in indigenous communities, along with solar cooking programmes where the levels of solar radiation are highest.

The main stumbling block in the exploitation of solar energy is the cost of the equipment used to produce the power, but it is still a viable option in remote areas where tapping in to the national grid would be far more expensive.

This factor was specifically stressed by Hanz Kurz, resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which funded the formation of a national solar power network through the Small Donations Programme.

Kurz said the production of solar energy for the populations of La Esperanza and Colas del Gallo, in the western province of Guanacaste, had cost 63,000 dollars. The cost of connecting them to the traditional network would have been 370,000 dollars.

The solar energy potential can also be expressed in megawatts. That of Costa Rica is 10,000 megawatts, but at present only one percent of this is used.

Allan Chin, of the Energy Sector Department, a Ministry of Environment and Energy Dependency, said if the aim were to substitute the consumption of traditional energy, the most feasible use for solar energy would be in heating water.

If this were achieved up to 10 percent of the total consumption of electrical energy in the country could be substituted.

The greatest limitation, Chin told IPS, is the cost of the equipment. For a single house, a water heating system costs around 600 or 700 dollars, a very high sum for the bulk of the Costa Rican population.

However, he agreed with the UNDP representative that solar energy is the most viable and competitive option for supplying sectors which would otherwise go without.

For Minister of Environment and Energy, Rene Castro, the solar systems offer concrete benefits. Firstly, he said, the sun is an inexhaustable source of energy which produces neither contamination nor waste.

Furthermore, it allows families to increase their possibilities of studying, as daylight time is extended at no extra cost.

The system also facilitates access to information via the radio and television and, finally, it represents a saving to the family budget as no other traditional sources of energy are needed.

Kurz, meanwhile, stressed the families had benefitted from the project, carried out by a cooperative, ''they (previously) used candles and petrol to light their homes, just as the rest of Costa Rica did a hundred years ago.''

The project started on November 21.

The establishment of a national solar power network forms part of the national energy plan established for the ten year period from 1995 to 2005, aiming to introduce new and renewable sources of energy in all human and productive activities.

By virtue of the difficulty and the high cost of extending the network to cover the whole country, efforts are now being directed towards building, operating and maintaining independent systems.

These systems consist of a solar panel, a battery and a voltage regulator. They produce sufficient energy to light small houses with three 13 watt fluorescent bulbs and to power a television.

The panels are made of silicon cells which turn sunlight into electric energy. This energy is stored in the voltage regulated battery, which supplies the plugs and electrical apparatus.

Each family in La Esperanza and Colas de Gallo will pay a charge equivalent to six or seven dollars per month allowing the cooperative operating the project to reinvest, extend coverage and maintain the equipment. (END/IPS/tra-so/mso/dg/sm/97)