9 March 2011: The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is providing a US$30.3 million loan to expand geothermal energy provision in Nicaragua to use the country’s volcanoes as sources of clean energy for 1/12 of the households in the country.

Geothermal power plants convert hot water from the Earth’s interior to steam or vapor to run a turbine and generate electricity, after which the water is injected back into the underground geothermal reservoir. Geothermal power plants do not require fuel as they run on their own produced energy, and are thus immune to fuel cost fluctuations. Generation capacity is largely unaffected by changing weather conditions, and geothermal plants use a minor fraction of the land and freshwater needed for most other energy facilities. [IDB Press Release]