The Costa Rica Electricity Institute (ICE) has said that the Geothermal project Las Pailas II, currently under development and expected to be ready by 2019, will be the most modern geothermal plant in Central America and the Caribbean .

“It is the first geothermal plant in the region that will have a cooling tower made of reinforced fiber glass, all its wells will be drilled with directional technique and it will produce electricity with just one last generation Japanese turbine” stated the press release.

According to the construction coordinator of Las Pailas II, Didier Ugalde, in previous projects the cooling towers have been built in concrete and wood, but never in fiber glass; this new element reduces the investment in the project, it brings down the costs of operation and it benefits the environment, explained Ugalde.

The project is currently at a 54%, the construction of the cooling tower of five cells began in January. The machine room will take up less space than the ones already operating in the country, a world trend in the design of geothermal projects, for this area they will use a light concrete panel system to improve the sound isolation of the equipment.

The construction of Las Pailas II began in 2013 and when it begins operating in 2019 it will be the seventh of its kind in Costa Rica, during the last two years (2015 and 2016) the country has produced more than 98 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, geothermal energy is one of these.