Geothermal energy

With the goal of adding 350 MW of installed geothermal power capacity in Latin America over the next ten years, Germany’s KfW Development Bank last month announced that it has raised €55 million as an initial round of funding for its Geothermal Development Facility for Latin America, which will focus on early-stage projects.

The facility, which will be managed by Washington, DC-based, IDA Fund Management, LLC, includes contributions from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration, Andean Development Corporation, and the World Bank, among other financial institutions.

The initial round will support investment in geothermal projects in ten Latin American countries, including Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

KfW is a division of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.

In Central America, Costa Rica recently accelerated its geothermal development with an expansion of the Pailas plant, and the construction of the Borinquen plant, which together will have installed capacity of 165 MW.

Both are projects of the state-owned Costa Rican Electricity Institute, with funding of $224 million from the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Polaris Infrastructure for its part plans an expansion of its San JacintoTizate geothermal plant in Nicaragua.

In Mexico, Domo de San Pedro – the country’s first private geothermal field -started operations last year, with installed capacity of 25 MW.

In addition, funding from the United States Trade Development Agency and helped Colombian utility company Empresas Públicas de Medellín to prepare a feasibility study for the Nevado Del Ruiz geothermal project.

Central & South America and the Caribbean saw an increase of nearly 90% in announced geothermal projects in the period March – September 2016, amounting to 260 MW, according to geo-energy.org.