A look into the History of Nuevo Arenal, or how 2 towns sacrificed themselves to bring electricity to the countryside.
Lake Arenal: An Ambitious Hydroelectric Project
Nuevo Arenal may look like any other small town in Costa Rica, but it has quite an interesting history to it. To talk about this, we need to start with the lake. The ICE (Costa Rican Institute of Electricity) was created in 1949, with the idea to bring electric power to the entire country. In order to reach this goal, and provide electricity to more rural areas, they designed their biggest project yet: the Arenal Hydroelectric Plant.
This involved 12 years of planning, altering the course of the Arenal River, building a dam to create an artificial lake, etc. Plus one other tiny little detail: they needed to flood 2 small towns, Arenal and Tronadora.
Building Towns: Nuevo Arenal and Tronadora
The ICE was conscious of the huge sacrifice they were asking from the people of Arenal and Tronadora. So, they involved the towns in every decision they made along the way, making sure they understood their wants and needs. After all, they would need to uproot their entire lives and relocate soon.
The residents chose the location of their new towns between a few options. Tronadora decided on the area of San Luis, close to Tilaran. Arenal picked a spot on what would be the opposite side of the lake. There, the ICE started to build houses for each family, giving them the opportunity to have their own home and a piece of land at very favorable prices.
They started building the towns in 1975. By October 1976, Nuevo Tronadora was ready to welcome its residents! Nuevo Arenal took a bit longer and people started moving in in December of 1977.
A New Life
Little by little, people got settled into their new lives. When the first residents moved in, there were 330 houses and 151 plots of land waiting for them in Nuevo Arenal. They now had electrical power at home, and the houses were a great improvement on those in the old town.
In Nuevo Tronadora, they set up workshops with agriculture classes, among others, to help the community grow. The people also organized a farmer’s cooperative to sell their produce.
Nuevo Arenal has now developed into a bustling little town of approximately 3000 people. Its natural beauty has attracted many people from around the world who now call it home. Arenal is slowly, but steadily becoming a wonderful destination for eco-tourism. There’s plenty of adventures, great little hotels or vacation rentals, and some of the best restaurants in the country here! What are you waiting for?
A Great Success for Renewable Energy
Nowadays, the Arenal Hydroelectric Plant is still one of the largest ones in the country. It has a generation capacity of 157.39 MV and played an important role in helping Costa Rica run on over 98% renewable energy since 2014! This is also the only reservoir that is able to store water during the dry season. Once it has generated power, the water is used again for agricultural irrigation.
Last, but not least, the artificial Lake Arenal has made the area even more beautiful and helped to attract tourism. Thousands of people visit each year to enjoy boat rides, kayaking, wake-boarding, fishing, and so much more!
