A large part of the Nicaragua energy plan is to produce almost 100% of its electricity from renewable sources. One such source being the huge geothermal energy potential that is already being tapped into at the San-Jacinto-Tizate and Momotombo geothermal power plants, each producing in excess of 75 MW of electricity.
The latest news on the geothermal front is that the national energy company; Empresa Nicaragüense de Electricidad or ENEL by its acronym in Spanish, has presented its finding from an Environmental Impact Study (EIA) at the proposed location for the Mombacho geothermal project.
The EIA for the proposed drilling of three deep exploratory geothermal wells of the Mombacho Volcano Geothermal Project was made in the community of Nandaime, Department of Granada, by the company Sánchez Argüello y Company Limited, a leading environmental consultant. The Executive President of ENEL, Eng. Ernesto Martínez Tiffer was also at the presentation of this important energy project.
ENEL have been conducting background work on the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) backed Mombacho project for many years and as a result remain convinced that there is a high possibility of finding steam, the all-important part of the geothermal process. The wells needed to produce the steam will be more than 1,500 meters deep and will drive the “green” electric power generating plant that will be built above them.
MSc. Sandra María Sánchez (CEO of the environmental consulting firm) took time to assure the interested parties present that they had gathered a lot of environmental and scientific data from the area of the proposed plant, which included the Mombacho Nature Reserve, the Laguna de Mecatepe Nature Reserve as well as the Manares River.
The takeaway for the locals being that Sánchez assured them there would be no water damage and that the project could help with the much needed re-forestation process in Nicaragua with improvement and restoration strengthening the overall local environmental picture. The project includes 5 km of new roads, a resettlement plan for those affected and a plan to strengthen Ecotourism in the area.
ENEL explained that each well is drilled at the cost of about US $5 million. In turn each productive “steam well” can produce 5 MW for a minimum investment of US $35 million, depending on how many wells in total they will need to drill. On top of the minimum for the wells, there are the costs for the civil engineering works and the plant to produce the electricity. The project is expected to take 5 years to complete.
As a footnote, it has also been announced that a contract for civil works in preparation of exploratory drilling at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) supported Cosigüina geothermal project has been awarded locally.
Source: ENEL
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