Running Dry

A massive leak in the Reventazón Dam reveals why the world's greenest country almost went dark in May of 2024.

[Speaker 1]: Okay, so start with the sound. Not the sound of a turbine spinning, or a waterfall crashing. But a leak. [Speaker 2]: A leak? [Speaker 1]: A leak. In the Caribbean slope of Costa Rica, there is a massive concrete wall. The Reventazón Dam. It’s the largest hydroelectric project in Central America. It cost 1.4 billion dollars to build, and it was supposed to be the pyramid of Costa Rican energy independence. [Speaker 2]: The crown jewel. [Speaker 1]: Exactly. But earlier this year, engineers weren’t just watching the water levels drop because of the drought. They were monitoring a fracture in the rock massif. A "strong water leak" bleeding about 180 liters per second out of the reservoir. [Speaker 2]: That is... not a small amount of water. [Speaker 1]: No. And that leak is the perfect metaphor for what we’re talking about today. Because Costa Rica is famous for being the "greenest" country on earth. You see the headlines everywhere: "Running on 100% renewable energy." [Speaker 2]: But in May of 2024, the country was told the lights were going out. The narrative of infinite green energy hit the hard rock of reality. [Speaker 1]: So we started pulling on this thread, and what we found was a system that is much more fragile than the postcards suggest. Today, we’re looking at the angle no one likes to talk about: How a country with 99% green electricity ends up burning diesel to keep the lights on, and why a former NASA astronaut says they’ve been solving the wrong problem all along. [Speaker 2]: And here is the part that surprised me: The solution might not be more rain. It might be rocket science. [Speaker 1]: So, let’s get into it. [Speaker 2]: To understand why the lights almost went out in 2024, we actually have to go back to 1948. [Speaker 1]: Of course we do. [Speaker 2]: No, really. This is the context most foreign reporting misses. In 1948, Costa Rica finished a civil war and did something radical. They abolished their army. [Speaker 1]: Which is the famous fact everyone knows. "No army, Pura Vida." [Speaker 2]: Right, but look at it from a budget perspective. They took the money that would have gone to tanks and soldiers, and they poured it into healthcare, education, and the ICE. The Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad. [Speaker 1]: The state utility. [Speaker 2]: The mandate for ICE was simple: Electrify the country using what we have. And what Costa Rica has is mountains and rain. [Speaker 1]: So, Hydroelectricity. [Speaker 2]: Exactly. For 70 years, this was genius. By 2015 and 2016, Costa Rica was making global news-running for 110 consecutive days without burning a drop of fossil fuel. [Speaker 1]: And that’s where the "100% Renewable" branding comes from. [Speaker 2]: Right. But let me walk you through how the machine actually works, because this is where the vulnerability is. The grid is built on a base of Hydro-that’s about 70%. Then they have Geothermal-energy from volcanoes. That’s about 13%. [Speaker 1]: Okay, quick sidebar. Why does that split matter? [Speaker 2]: Because Geothermal is what engineers call "Firm Energy." It works 24/7, rain or shine. But Hydro? Hydro is "Variable." It depends on the weather. And because Hydro was so cheap and so abundant for so long, they fell into what experts call the "Hydro Trap." [Speaker 1]: Meaning they stopped diversifying? [Speaker 2]: Exactly. Solar power makes up less than 1% of the matrix. [Speaker 1]: Wait. Less than 1%? In a tropical country?…