Costa Rica photovoltaic base station container

According to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE) and the Costa Rican National Power and Light Company (CNFL), both government entities, the target market for solar energy in Costa Rica, remains to be households or companies that consume between 200kw/h and 3,000kw/h. ICE and CNFL have been installing photovoltaic systems.

There are many private companies, most of them members of ACESOLAR (Costa Rican Solar Energy Association), and the CDG (Chamber of Distributed Energy Generation of Costa Rica). They have changed the current legislation opening the market and allowing more solar panels and batteries to be installed.

Most companies selling solar systems are assembled Asian solar panels with some U.S. made components. In 2016, the Costa Rican government approved a new regulation which allows individuals and companies to produce solar energy (up to 15 percent of the users per district) and sell up to 49 percent of their excess production back to the grid.

ICE has installed 2,559 systems in homes, 649 systems installed for community activities, and 132 systems installed in conservation areas. There are three major solar parks in Costa Rica; Juanilama by Coopeguanacaste, Pocosol by Coopelesca, and Valle Escondido that will be built in 2021 by BMR Energy, contracted by ICE but not in use.

As mentioned before, there is no significant local production of solar energy products in Costa Rica, but it has increased during the last year. The Costa Rican energy generation matrix for 2022 is composed of 74 percent Hydro, 12.8 percent Geothermal, 12.5 percent Wind, Biomass 0.54 percent. and 0.07 percent Solar.

Based on the projections made by the Costa Rican Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), the participation of solar energy in Costa Rica for 2030 will reach 1.3 percent, while the hydroelectric market will increase to 80 percent.