Costa Rica Runs Entirely on Renewable Energy for 300 Days

Costa Rica has charted another clean energy accolade. So far this year, the Central American country has run on 300 days of 100 percent power generation from renewable energy sources, according to the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity (ICE), which cited figures from the National Center for Energy Control.

With six weeks left of 2017 to go, Costa Rica could easily surpass 300 days.

This impressive feat bests its 2015 record of 299 days of 100 percent renewable production. The country went 271 days using only renewable energy production in 2016.

Costa Rica currently receives 99.62 percent of its electricity from five renewable sources, the highest proportion since 1987. This year, 78.26 percent of electricity came from hydropower, 10.29 percent from wind, 10.23 percent from geothermal energy and 0.84 percent from biomass and solar.

Costa Rica has emerged as an global environmental leader, with its frequent 100 percent renewable energy streaks and its 2021 goal of becoming carbon neutral—a deadline set a decade ago.

In June, Costa Rican government officials announced an ambitious plan to become the world's first country to achieve a comprehensive national strategy to eliminate single-use plastics by 2021.

The ICE also noted that 2017 is poised to the biggest year for wind production in the country's history, with 1,014.82 gigawatt hours generated by 16 wind farms.