Nicaragua’s state electricity company Nicaraguan Electricity Company (ENEL) presented the Environmental Impact Assessment for the drilling of three deep exploratory geothermal wells of the Mombacho Volcano Geothermal Project, Think Geoenergy informed. The purpose of the assessment is to ensure that decision makers consider the environmental impacts when deciding whether or not to proceed with a project.
The Government of Nicaragua decided some years ago to allow private companies to continue the development of the country’s geothermal resources. Currently the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is financing a project in Mombacho, a stratovolcano near the city of Granada.
The objective of the project is to contribute to economic development, diversification of electric power production, and mitigation of climate change, through the use of the renewable energy, by construction of the geothermal power plant. The project falls into the geothermal sector under the JICA guidelines for environmental and social considerations.
JICA has been collaborating with the socioeconomic development of Nicaragua since the first dispatch of Japanese volunteers in 1991, signing in 2001 the Technical Cooperation Agreement between the Governments of Japan and Nicaragua, which expanded the types of assistance, having now the modalities of Technical Cooperation (including dispatch of experts, elaboration of development plans, training courses in Japan and third countries through the Knowledge Co-Creation Program KCCP), Grant Aid (in the form of equipment or infrastructure donations), Japanese Volunteers Program, and ODA Loans.
