Miravalles: ICE Geothermal Plant

 Natural Steam

Geothermal energy is a form of renewable energy derived from the natural heat of the earth. This heat is brought to the surface by thermal conduction and by intrusion into the earth's crust of molten magma coming from great depths. As groundwater is heated, geothermal energy is produced in the form of hot water and steam. High temperature reservoirs greater than 150 degrees C are ideal for commercial production of electricity. This picture is taken by the plant which shows the hot water and steam coming through the Earth´s surface. This is the type of steam that would be used for geothermal energy.

Miravalles I
This is the first geothermal plant installed: Miravalles I. It employes single flash plant Toshiba technology that was bought from the Japanese. The construction of the plant started March 2, 1994 and it took two years to finish. The unit requires 435 tons of vapors per hour to produce 55 MW, but at it´s full capacity it is able to generate 60 MW. This picture shows the first section of the process. The tubing shown is for bringing the vapor from the reserviors to the seperator & then to the turbine. Afterward, the recondensed vapor is sent to the cooling towers.

Miravalles II
This is the vapor input for the second unit installed: Miravalles II. This more modern technology was manufactured by Ansaldo, an Italian firm. Construction was started on August 13, 1998. This plant also required two years to complete construction, but the production was backed up for two more years due to problems with the new technology. This plant produces the same as Miravalles I: 55 MW. This picture shows the flow of the vapor that is extracted from the reservior into the vapor seperator. The vapor seperator then seperates the gas from the water under pressure and then transports it to the turbine to generate energy.

Cooling Towers
After the water vapor is used to generate energy, it is transported to the cooling towers. Within the cooling towers the vapor is cooled and condenses into water. Here the water is cooled to 29 degrees C by huge fans on the top of the building blowing down. After the water goes through the cooling tower it is still too hot to inject back into the reservior. In order to further cool the water, it is delivered to lagoons were the water is allowed to cool down for a period of itime. Once the water gets to the temperature of 15-20 degrees C it will be safe to re-inject into the reservoir.

Control Room
This picture shows the control room which is inside the same building as the turbines of Miravalles I and II. The other two plants are located in different areas nearby. From this room, ICE is able to control and monitor all of the Miravalles power plants except Miravalles III. Miravalles III is foreign owned and so it is monitored by those companies. ICE sells Miravalles III the steam and buys back their generated electricity. The other three geothermal plants employ about 80 local workers who control, monitor and maintain the plants. If anything irregular is happening at one of the three plants, emergency shutdown valves can be controlled from this control room.

Miravalles Power Grid
This is the Miravalles power grid to which all the geothermal power plants are connected. The power from this grid first goes to the Arenal area, and then on to San Jose through the ¨Sistema Nacional Interconectado¨. Currently, Miravalles provides enough electricity to power the entire province of Guanacaste. All of the Miravalles plants together generate a total of 142.5 MW, providing between 10 to 13 percent of Costa Rica’s total electricity. This is a great clean renewable energy source for Costa Rica, but the reservoirs in Miravalles are only thought to last about 20 years. With ICE’s good care and maintenance it is hoped that the reservoirs will last up to 26 years.

 

Excess Steam
These are the cooling towers where excess steam is released into the atmosphere after the energy has been produced by drving the turbines.

Author: Tanya Almada

Cañas: Las Pumas Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

Afternoon Nap
A Jaguar takes a nap during the hot Spring afternoon in Guanacaste, Costa Rica. Although her cage contains a variety of native trees and plants, soft grass, scratching posts, climbing platforms, and scented bags of eucalyptus and vanilla oils, our guide says that she prefers to stay in the cool shade of her concrete-floored “bedroom.” Jaguars are the biggest predator-carnivores in the Neotropics, feeding on monkeys, birds, turtles, iguanas, and other larger mammals. They are active night and day, and are known to travel over 200-300km/day! In Costa Rica today, Jaguars are endangered of extinction due to hunting by farmers (to reduce cattle loss) and habitat loss from deforestation.

Not only Pumas are kept at Las Pumas Rescue Shelter
Las Pumas currently shelters five of the six endangered felines of Costa Rica, including the Margay (Leopardus wiedii), Jaguarundi (Herpailurus yaguarondi), Ocelot (Leopardus pardalis), Puma (Puma concolor), and Jaguar (Panthera onca). They also provide safe housing for other animals such as the gray fox, racoon, white-faced monkey, white-tailed deer, orange chineed parakeet, keel-billed toucan, orange-fronted parakeet, red-lored parrot and scarlet macaw. The primary objective of Las Pumas is to rehabilitate and release animals back into conservation areas, but sometimes animals are kept at the shelter if they demonstrate a physical or emotional fragility.

Lilly Bodmer de Hagnauer, Founder of Las Pumas Rescue Shelter
Approximately 40 years ago, Mrs. Lilly Bodmer de Hagnauer began to care for injured and orphaned wild animals in Costa Rica. After a few years she had accumulated over 160 animals of 60 different species. To house the animals, she first constructed Hacienda La Pacifica, S.A., a small and private wildlife rehabilitation shelter in Cañas, Guanacaste. In 1985, she built an even larger facility, Las Pumas Rescue Shelter, which is still in use today, sheltering more than 80 individuals of 22 endangered species. Lilly died in 2001, but her Rescue Shelter continues to operate as part of the Arenal Tempisque Conservation Area (ACAT).

¿Cuál animal es la mejor mascota? (Which animal is the best pet?)
One-forth of all homes in Costa Rica keep a wild animal (birds, parakeets, reptiles, and even small cats!) as a pet, and every year 27,000-35,000 baby birds are poached for pet trade. Las Pumas Rescue Shelter takes in, recuperates and releases back into the wild animals that have been confiscated by the authorities or donated by local people once they become too difficult to look after. To reduce illegal pet trade in Costa Rica, the shelter also operates an environmental education program where children learn the role and importance of wild animals in their native ecosystems.

Employment and Volunteering Opportunities
Las Pumas Rescue Shelter currently offers employment to 10 local residents who live in the nearby Corobicí and Cañas communities. These local people learn about farm and wild animal management, tourist relations, construction and bricklaying. There is also a foreign volunteer exchange program at the shelter, where up to three volunteers can live at the station for up to six weeks, assisting in environmental education and animal care. A normal day at the shelter consists of breakfast at 5:00am, then work starting at 6:00am, which includes sweeping paths, preparing fruits, vegetables and meat for the animals to eat, doing ground maintenance, giving tours of the facility, assisting in animal rehabilitation care, and monitoring the activity and preparing daily logs of permanent animal residents.

Contributions Welcome

Las Pumas Rescue Shelter is sustained primarily on voluntary contributions and donations from institutes, companies, organizations and farms. To feed the animals, cows are also donated by Hacienda Montezuma in Cañas, and fruits veggies are donated by local markets. Over the last 10 years, the shelter has accumulated 67.4 million colones ($136,000) from contributions, but unfortunately they still are facing a 20.9 million colones ($42,000) deficit. To raise additional money, the shelter has increased their visibility by offering more tours and educational classes, obtaining national and international media coverage, exhibiting the shelter to nature photographers, and advertising in Costa Rican travel books. If you would like at make a contribution to Las Pumas Rescue Shelter, please contact laspumas@racsa.co.cr.

Author: Michelle Krieg

La Tigra: ICE Penas Blancas Hydroelectric Plant

Ronald Shows Us How Hydropower Works
In the picture, Ronald is walking us through the touch screen computer system that controls the turbine that is shut off. He didn't want to mess around with the functioning turbine... The entire system can be turned off by simply pressing 'stop' on the screen. One can see at what capacity the turbine is functioning, how much electricity is being produced, and can manage most of the plant's operations on this screen. While the turbines are controlled on these screens, the station itself is managed from San Jose, over a hundred kilometers away! Ronald actually lives in San Jose and commutes to the plant a week at a time.

¿How Much Water from Hydropower?
At the lowest of three levels in the Peñas Blancas hydroelectric power plant is where two of these contraptions are located. A large tube carries water from the Peñas Blancas River down to the plant, where it is split into two tubes to feed the two Francis turbines. At maximum capacity, each tube shoots 18 cubic meters of water through...per second! The water flows through each of the tubes through a spherical valve, which is responsible for starting and stopping water flow. Keep in mind that the water flows from the left of the picture to the right, where the large spherical valve is located. This plant receives around 2,000,000 cubic meters of water per day!

 Hydropower Turbine Axle
The rushing water flows through the open spherical valve and hits the Francis turbine, which in turn begins to spin rapidly. The turbine is connected to a vertical axle which is pictured here. The axle is also connected by these enormous bolts to the generator axle above it, which turns the generator. This connection between the turbine and the generator is responsible for turning mechanical energy into electrical energy. This entire contraption will spin at a nominal speed of 514 revolutions per minute. Our tour guide Ronald had to make sure the operators didn't plan on turning it while we were in there, these machines can be incredibly dangerous to those without proper training.

How Does the Spherical Valve Work Miguel?
Miguel explained how exactly the spherical valve works. The valve cannot regulate the amount of water coming through; it can only turn the water flow on and off. The power plant is 135 meters lower in elevation than the dam, meaning that a great deal of water is coming towards the plant at a high velocity. 'Head' as it is referred to, is the altitude difference between a reservoir and the hydroelectric plant. The water thus comes through with a lot of pressure in order to turn the turbines. When water flow must be cut off, pressure to the hydraulic system is reduced, which allows a weight to close the valve automatically.

Hydroelectric Hydraulics Revisited

Hydraulic power is used for a few different things at the Peñas Blancas hydroelectric plant. First and foremost, the spherical valve which turns the water flow on and off is regulated by a hydraulic system. There is also an emergency brake at the plant, just in case. This is just one of the many safety measures taken by ICE in constructing this plant. The brake is simply a piston which, through hydraulics, is pushed up into the generator to stop it in case of emergency. The hydraulic system also controls the blades of the Francis turbines and shifts their angle to the water in order to maximize efficiency. All of these hydraulic systems are controlled by the machine pictured above.

Where Does the Water Go After the Hydroelectric Plant?
Once the water is forced through the turbine, it drops down into a canal that stretches 1,976 meters back to the Peñas Blancas River. In this way, the station can be seen as a closed system. It diverges water from the river, through the plant, and back to the river. Although hydroelectric projects do not contribute to global warming, they do have a very serious impact on their immediate surroundings. The river dries up as most of the water is held up in a reservoir, which floods immense stretches of land containing ecosystems and cities. Costa Rica derives 70% of its electricity from hydropower.

Author: Esequiel Zylberberg

San Ramón: Family Organic Coffee Production

 

 Organic Coffee Harvesing
A family business harvesting organic coffee in San Ramon. Here they are separating the red beans from the few green ones and also removing rotten beans. The whole family is involved in this enterprise. One of the many challenges for organic coffee growers in Costa Rica is the lack of organic processing plants near the coffee farms. The wide fluctuation in market prices has discouraged farmers from forming organic cooperatives because at current rates, conventional practices are more lucerative. Modernization has caused more family members to take jobs in cities and there are fewer family laborers in rural areas. In order for the organic farmers to be compensated for the extra labor costs they endure, organic coffee should be priced 38% higher than conventional coffee.

Organic Coffee Processing
In order to be certified organic, the facility that processes the coffee must process only organic berries. Gary sells his coffee to a local processing plant about 15 minutes away from La Patriana Farm. It is a family run, small scale plant whose facilities are located at the house of Pablo and his family. One shed contains the machine that separates the coffee beans from the berries. Outside behind the shed, there are wooden shelves covered in plastic where the beans are dried. We were lucky to see the plant in action and watched as the machine took in the red berries and expelled white coffee beans and berry pulp. The berries are then sent elsewhere to be roasted and the pulp is used for compost.

Author: Lisa Rogers

La Fortuna: Medicinal Plant Garden

'El Jardin' (Medicinal Herb Garden)
This organic herb garden located in Fortuna was founded by a woman named Christina and is now maintained today solely by her and her husband. The herbal garden was created about fifteen years ago. The institution Andar came to a community in Catarata to teach people how to grow plants and medicinal herbs for a group called GEMA (Grupo Ecologico de Mujeres de El Abanico), where Christina learned how to grow her plants. GEMA is a womens’ group based in Arenal that produces organic teas, spices, and medicinal herbs, and they buy the dry herbs Christina produces. Also, the University of Costa Rica helped teach the women of GEMA about medicinal herbs and gardening. The garden is open to visitors and Christina sells herbal teas made from her plants and other GEMA gardens, along with her own Shampoo.

Medicinal Plant Education

Christina gives tours of her facilities: The garden, a shaded area for her plants, her verma composting (worm composting), her kitchen where she produces her shampoo, and her cows whose milk she sells. Her small finca (farm), approximately 6 hectares, provides the local community with fresh milk, herbs to naturally cure most ailments and shampoo. She maintains it while educating around 40 people a month from all over the world, including France, Germany, and Australia on her sustainable practices. Two companies from France and one from Germany purchase her products. Additionally, her farm provides an ecosystem haven for many birds, such as toucans and hummingbirds, who come because of certain flowers. Also, there were many nests in her garden that were hanging on the trees of her property but the wind knocked them over so she picked them up and hung them in her garden patio.

Medicinal Plant Samples
Depicted above are a few of the things that the herbal garden contains. To the left you can see aloe Vera, which is good for your skin. You can put it on your sun burns and cuts to help your skin heal. On the right is pepper. It looks beautiful, but caution--it is spicy if you take too much in at once.
Pepper is an example of one of the spices in the garden.

Medicinal Plant Products

Shown here are dried herbs (left) and the shampoo that Christina makes & sells (right), which is made with organic herbs from her garden. All of the shampoo is produced in her home and is mostly sold locally. Her shampoo helps with dandruff and hair loss and is also said to strengthen the hair and revitalize its natural shine. The label on the shampoo is presently 'Eco Verde' something she came up with. However the name will soon be changed to 'El Jardin la Aroma-Tica' (the name of her garden) which translates to 'The Tica perfume or fragrance', in order to unify her projects and get more advertisement out. She is also currently working on getting a certificate that will allow her to sell her products to local hotels.

Drying and Shading the Plants
Before sending the herbs to GEMA, Christina dries them (the image of the drying room is to the left). Then someone from Abanico, the main GEMA sight, comes and picks up the dried products for packaging, and labeling. Some herbs are made into teas and some are made into spices. Some plants, according to Christina, need to be sheltered from the strong Costa Rican sun, so she has built a shaded area to protect
some of these plants. This is also the site of the vermicompost.

The Vermi-Compost
Vermicomposting uses earthworms to turn organic waste into a very high quality compost, in this case Christina uses the manure from her cows. The worms digest the manure, and the result is a rich, dark, earth-smelling soil conditioner. The great advantage of worm composting is that it can be done indoors and outdoors, thus allowing year round composting.

Institutional Connections of the Garden
Fundecooperation para el Desarollo Sostenible provided the group GEMA with money which helped them with their group effort. Fundecooperation was founded in 1992; there mission is to help improve social working conditions of the general Costa Rican public. They focus on sustainable tourism, environmental drive, clean technologies, sustainable agriculture, and fairness in general.
Vaccaciones con Familias Campesinas is a group of families in small communities of northern Costa Rica that accommodate tourism by trying to show tourist how they live their daily lives. Visitors can stay in a home stay and live like the locals. Some of the things that tourist can do are: Milk cows, fish, or help with the agriculture production. The organization also offers trips from one side of Costa Rica, the pacific, to the other, the Caribbean, which can last up to 21 days.

Author: Rosalinda Gonzalez

La Fortuna: Biogas-Powered Cottage Industry

Farm-Scale Biodigestor

This biodigestor is basically made up of a large bag that is filled with manure (in this case cow) and water and the methane gas that is released as a by-product of the decomposition process is used as an energy source for Christinas house (the tube connected to the bag in this image goes directly to fuel the stove in the kitchen). The entire operation cost around 300,000 colones, which is approximately $600. The sign standing above and to the left of the biodigestor (the close-up image on the right) reads: “Mi Proyecto participa en el Plan de Gestión de la Cuenca del Rio Peñas Blancas”, which is in reference to the main power distributor in Costa Rica, ICE, paying for a portion of the biodigestor in an effort to preserve the health of the river basin.

Shampoo Manufacturing Room

Christina makes all of her shampoo in a room right next to her house. She keeps the area very clean and abides by health regulations. When you enter the shampoo making room the first thing you see is a sink, where you wash your hands. Next to that is a methane powered burner. She uses the methane produced from her biodigester to fuel the stove that she uses to make the shampoo by running a tube from the biodigestor in her backyard to the burner. This practice makes her shampoo manufacturing process more sustainable, because she is producing her own gas, and it is from a local source (her cows).

Author: Rosalinda Gonzalez

San Ramón: Finca Patriana Organic Coffee Farming

Tour of Organic Bird-Friendly Coffee Farm
During our visit, our group was given a tour by Gary, the owner of La Patriana farm. His wife was out of the country at the time. Gary stated that it was her idea for La Patriana to become a bird-friendly coffee farm and they are now the only certified bird-friendly coffee farm ever in Costa Rica. To be bird friendly, a farm is required to have 10 different species of trees within a 50 meter radius. For this reason, the farm resembles a forest and one must look closely to identify the individual rows of coffee in the understory. La Patriana is also certified organic (to be bird-friendly a farm must be organic) and until last year was part of a cooperative of 8 farms. Unfortunately, the other 7 dropped out of the coop and went conventional due to the reduction in market premiums for organic coffee.

Shade Grown Coffee
Coffee plants are naturally meant to be in the shade. Traditionally, they do not thrive in the direct sun. In addition to providing the partial shade a coffee plant needs, trees in shade grown coffee farms provide habitat for many species of birds. The recent reduction in shade trees in coffee growing areas has disrupted migratory bird populations up to 1500 miles away from coffee growing areas. Coffee harvests have three phases: Primary, main phase and final phase. This plant in ready for the final phase of harvest and therefore has only a few berries on each branch.

A 'Cajuela' of Harvested Bird-Friendly Coffee

When coffee is picked, it is measured in cajuelas for sale as well as to compensate pickers. After measuring each cajuela of coffee, the coffee berries are placed in bags for shipment to the processing plant. Notice the stark red color inside the coffee bag. Organic certification requires that the coffee berries that are picked are all red. Conventional coffee allows both red and green berries. Fully ripened coffee berries are red and
this results in a better quality coffee.

Gary Stenlund & Coffee Picker
Because his farm is only about 2 acres, Gary does not employ very many workers. He needs help only 2 or 3 times a year for 2 or 3 days at a time. When he does hire pickers, Gary hires from the local community. Many of the pickers grew up with families in the coffee business and are therefore very efficient. The pickers do have to adjust to picking only red berries when working for La Patriana. Gary pays a fair price and on the day we visited this picker was completing the final harvest. He made around $10 that day for 4 or 5 cajuelas of coffee. The picker stated that during the main harvest he made double that. This is a very fair wage for Costa Rica, but the work is seasonal and for La Patriana, is available few days in a year.



A video on Finca Patriana can also be found in the field study section of the EEI VideoBlog.

Author: Lisa Rogers

Playa Langosta: Las Baulas National Park

Sea Turtle Work at Playa Langosta 

The entrance to Playa Langosta
sector of Las Baulas National
Park, where we provided
volunteer work assistance
working with sea turtles 

for four nights.

Facilities at Playa Langosta

Rustic sleeping quarters

in the trailer at Playa

Langosta.

Santa Rosa National Park

 

 Dry Tropical Forest Visit
Learning about the endangered dry tropical forest during
a guided hike at Barra Honda National Park. 

La Fortuna Area

Tropical Frog
A beautiful frog specimen discovered
in the gardens at the ecolodge where
we stayed in La Fortuna during a
night-exploration activity.

Hanging Bridges Private Reserve Visit
Stopping to take in the view of the canopy from one of the bridges of the
low-elevation rain forest at the 'Puentes Colgantes' private reserve
near La Fortuna in the northern zone of Costa Rica.

Coati (Pizote)
One of a group of coati's we ran across on
the side of the road near La Fortuna.

Introduction to Solar Energy
Dr. Karian providing a brief overview of solar energy at the ecolodge in La Fortuna.