The Costa Rican Electricity Institute said it had achieved 99% renewable energy generation last year. It also said that for 285 days last year the country managed to power its grid on 100% renewable sources.
The bulk of Costa Rica's power generation comes from hydropower thanks to a large river system and heavy tropical rainfalls. The rest is made up of a mix of geothermal energy, wind, biomass and solar power.
Scotland's wind turbines generated enough electricity to meet the needs of 97% of Scottish households last year, up 16% from the year before. Solar also provided 50% or more of Scottish household electricity or hot water needs during a total of seven months of the year. It bodes well for Scotland to reach its goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2020.
Denmark produced 42% of its electricity from wind turbines last year according to the state-owned energy company Energinet, the highest figure yet recorded worldwide. The main reason for the record-breaking year was that last year was a particularly windy year.
These rising numbers are getting the country closer to its goal of having 50% of its energy demand satisfied by wind power by 2020.
On one day, 2 September, Denmark operated without any central power stations being switched on at all, using electricity exclusively from wind turbines, solar cells, local combined heat and power plants and imports from neighbouring countries.
On another windy day in July, Denmark produced so much electricity that it was able to meet all its electricity needs and export another 40% of its power.
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