A Status Report: Las Pailas Binary Geothermal Project Guanacaste, Costa Rica: A New Clean Renewable Energy Source for Costa Rica (Pre-Feasiblity to Development Phases and Current Environmental Challenges)

Abstract

The Las Pailas Geothermal Project is located on the Pacific slope of the Quaternary Rincón de la Vieja Volcanic Complex in Northwestern Costa Rica. It is the first geothermal project that the Costa Rican Electricity Company (ICE) will develop at Rincón de la Vieja and in Costa Rica and is preceded only by the 163.5 Mwe Miravalles Geothermal Project (also developed by ICE) located on the Pacific slope of the neighboring Miravalles Volcano, to the southeast. The Las Pailas Geothermal Project will provide clean renewable energy with a 35 MWe Binary Geothermal Plant which is projected to come on line in 2011 to partially fulfill the rising electricity demand in Costa Rica. Currently there are fourteen deep geothermal wells and nineteen temperature gradient wells drilled in the Las Pailas geothermal wellfield which encompassing a surface area of eight square kilometers, limited to the north by the Rincón de la Vieja National Park boundary and to the west by a private property called Mundo Nuevo which belongs to the Guanacaste Dry Forest Conservation Fund, a non-governmental organization. This paper addresses some of the geoscientific exploration activities during the Pre-Feasiblity, Feasiblity and Development Phases of the Las Pailas Geothermal Field, the consulting companies subcontracted during each of these phases, general local and well geology, and some of the environmental challenges that are currently being faced.