Paul Moya

West Japan Engineering Consultants, Inc.
Advisor to the General Manager


Paul Moya Rojas received his Licentiate Degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Costa Rica, Costa Rica in 1982 and his Master of science in Water Resources Engineering from the University of Kansas, USA in 1985.

Later in 1985, Mr. Moya joined the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity to work in the geothermal development of Costa Rica. Mr. Moya attended a geothermal short course at the University of Kyushu in 1987 and later he obtained a scholarship to carry out geothermal studies on modeling of fractured and porous media at the University of Braunschweig, in Germany (1989) and more geothermal studies at the Institute of Soil Investigations of Niedersächsisches, in Hanover, Germany. In 1995, Mr. Moya attended a short course in Reservoir Engineering at the University of Auckland in New Zealand.

Mr. Moya worked for about 26 years at the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity and during this time Mr. Moya participated in the development of geothermal plants at the Miravalles Geothermal Field (Costa Rica): Unit 1, (55 MW, 1994), Wellhead Unit (5 MW, 1995), Unit 2 (55 MW, 1998), Unit 3 (29 MW, 2000) and Unit 5 (19 MW, 2004). At Las Pailas Geothermal Field (Costa Rica), Mr. Moya participated in the development of Unit 1 (35 MW, 2011).

In 2012 Mr. Moya joined West Japan Engineering Consultants, Inc. as adviser in geothermal energy. In this occasion Mr. Moya has helped in studies to develop geothermal energy in countries such: Colombia, Bolivia, Honduras, Nicaragua, Saint Kitts, Nevis, Dominica, Guadalupe, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Granada.

Mr. Moya was involved in the consulting services for Las Pailas Geothermal Field, and it is currently involved in the consulting services for Borinquen-1 Geothermal Field, which is now under development and construction.

Mr. Moya has published around 30 technical papers in geothermal seminars, workshops and world congresses and he has been invited as speaker in around 11 geothermal courses and workshops. Mr. Moya was elected as Board Director of the International Geothermal Association for the period 2016-2020.

Mr. Moya is the author of Chapter 23: Central and South America: significant but constrained potential for geothermal power generation, in the book called Geothermal Power Generation – Developments and Innovation, Edited by PAUL MOYA 2 Ronald DiPippo. Elsevier, 2016, http://store.elsevier.com/Geothermal-PowerGeneration/isbn-9780081003374/

Mr. Moya is also the author of Chapter 25: Geothermal Power Generation in Central America and the Caribbean Islands, in the Second Edition of the book called Geothermal Power Generation, Developments and Innovation, Edited by Ronald DiPippo, Luis C. A. Gutiérrez-Negrín and Andrew Chiasson, Elsevier, October 2024.