Climatescope 2025

Costa Rica

With a power score of 1.82, Costa Rica ranks number 72 among Emerging markets and number 14 in the Latin America region.

Power score
1.82/5

Fundamentals2.64/5
Opportunities1.03/5
Experience0.98/5
Explore all scores

Ranking over time1.82/5

Explore the ranking over time

Explore the fullProfile on BNEF

Overview

Costa Rica has a power score of 1.82, which puts it at rank 72 in the Emerging Markets power ranking. The power score of Costa Rica is lower than the average of 2.07 in the Latin America region.

Regional comparison chart

In the chart above all geographies within the region are arranged by power score from left to right. The circles are sized based on the population.

Power

Power policy

Costa Rica implements policies in 6/8 categories tracked by Climatescope; Renewable energy target, Auctions/tenders (utility-scale), Support for customer-sited generation (rooftop and self-consumption), Tax incentives, REC'S - Renewable Energy Certificates, and Priority generation dispatch

Renewable energy target
Auctions/tenders (utility-scale)
Feed-in tariff/premium (utility-scale)
Support for customer-sited generation (rooftop and self-consumption)
Tax incentives
Renewables mandate/RPS/Supplier Obligation
REC'S - Renewable Energy Certificates
Priority generation dispatch

Power prices and costs

The average electricity price in Costa Rica has increased from ~$192/MWh in 2023 to ~$205/MWh in 2024. Since 2019, the average electricity price in Costa Rica has fluctuated between ~$152/MWh in 2022 and ~$205/MWh in 2024.

Electricity prices in Costa Rica (2019-2024)

Power market

The top amount of capacity installed in Costa Rica in 2024 was in Hydro at 2.35GW, down from 2.37GW in 2023.

Installed capacity (2019-2024)

Electricity generation (2019-2024)

The technology with the largest share of electricity generated in Costa Rica in 2024 was Hydro at 8.37TWh, up from 8.11TWh in 2023.

Investment in Costa Rica (2019-2024)

Investment in clean energy in Costa Rica was around $78.96M in 2024. This amounts to an increase of around 5540% from $1.40M in 2023.

Utility privatisation

Which segments of the power sector are open to private participation?

generation
transmission
retail

Doing business and barriers

Type
Question
Availability
Bilateral power contracts
Can a C&I (Commercial and Industrial) customer sign a long-term contract (PPA) for clean energy?
Currency of Corporate PPAs
Are other PPAs (eg. corporate PPAs) signed in or indexed to U.S. Dollars or Euro?
Fossil fuel price distortions - Subsidies
Does the government keep the wholesale price of electricity from fossil fuels artificially low through subsidies?
Fossil fuel price distortions - Taxes and carbon prices
Does the government significantly increase the wholesale price of electricity from fossil fuel through targeted taxes and/or carbon prices?
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Emerging Markets Power Transition Factbook

This is the 14th edition of Climatescope, BloombergNEF’s annual assessment of energy transition opportunities in emerging markets. It highlights how the energy transition is progressing in these markets and how they are harnessing the transition to boost attractiveness to outside investors.

Download the report