Guanacaste produces nearly 40% of the national electricity since 1991

Guanacaste became the heart of the country's renewable generation. From its lands and from the early 1990s, 38.22% of Costa Rica's electricity comes from the five renewable sources of the national matrix: water, geothermal, wind, biombad and the Sun.

In structures in which both the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) and the private sector and a cooperative participate, Guanacaste has 27 power stations that provide power to the electrical system. (SEN) and are essential for ensuring national supply.

The ARDESA complex – which includes the Arenal, Dengo and Sandillal plants – is the nucleus of SEN. It was a visionary project, started in the 1970s and includes irrigation cbads for the province. These three hydropower plants, which operate in waterfall with Lake Arenal water, contribute about 20% of Costa Rica's annual electricity consumption.

In 1994, with a solid sustainable component, geothermal energy was incorporated as the second source of renewable energy in the national matrix. After more than 20 years of study in the canton of Bagaces – in the geothermal field of Miravalles, previously known as Alfredo Mainieri Protti-. It was in that year that the Miravalles I geothermal power plant, with an installed capacity of 55 megawatts, was inaugurated

. With this resource, it was decided to convert grbadlands into secondary forests. Next to the country's second geothermal field, Las Pailas, 1,869 hectares of forest are protected and reclaimed, with flora and fauna almost extinct by livestock and timber.

In Guanacaste, the first wind farm was installed. Latin America in 1996, which was the starting point for the country to become one of the world leaders in the participation of this source in its energy production matrix. At present, it exceeds even the average of the European Union countries.

Similarly, in this province was installed in 2012 the first photovoltaic plant of the Central American isthmus: the Solar Miravalles. And since the mid-1990s, the Taboga and El Viejo sweets have been adding electricity to the SENs during the harvest period.

The 27 renewable factories of Guanacaste