Rancho Santana in southwest Nicaragua is my home. I left the rat race in California and moved here four years ago with my wife and our two young daughters. We can walk from our house to the beach. What a front yard! I still pinch myself as I look out at the ocean while enjoying my morning coffee.
We rarely turn on the air conditioning. A fresh and constant breeze keeps temperatures comfortable. You see, strong trade winds blow from the Caribbean to the Pacific (east to west) with nothing in the way to slow them down…no large mountain ranges or vast plains. Lake Nicaragua dominates the geography allowing these winds to blow uninterrupted out to the Pacific Ocean. The result: a constant and refreshing breeze.
The winds here have another potential benefit.
At Rancho Santana we are only 50 miles from the border with Costa Rica. In terms of wind energy, we live smack in what’s called the “red zone”. This means excellent conditions for the generation of wind energy. Down the road and just outside Rivas, 40 turbines have been commissioned and are pumping energy into the grid. At Rancho Santana we’d like to be energy independent. We’d also like to help the local community by improving the availability of energy.
We recently had an expert…a guy by the name of Jim Ryan…do a study on the feasibility of generating wind energy at the ranch. Jim is based across the border in Costa Rica and is the President of ASI Power and Telemetry, S.A.
He says that the location of Rancho Santana is perfect for wind-driven power generation, especially some mountains ridges on the property.
We have the potential to generate more clean energy than our 3,000-acre community could ever use. Better still, with so much land and such low densities, no resident would even find their views encroached upon.
Nicaragua has abundant sources of renewable energies: Wind, solar, hydro and geothermal. The government has ambitious plans to grow this sector. They want and need more domestic energy sources. The problem today is these projects are capital intensive. The government is looking for private sector partners to invest. These are thin on the ground as global capital markets have contracted.
We’ll look to do our own thing. We’ll fund our energy source and help out our neighbors along the way. With our own energy and food source (the Pacific ocean), the world can huff and puff. We’ll still be enjoying our piece of paradise. The news stations will be turned off. But that will be our choice!
Editor’s note: To hear more from Marc, sign-up to The Pacific Frontier. It’s free, and in it you can follow Marc’s adventure in Nicaragua and hear how Rancho Santana’s plans for energy independence progresses.
