Uruguay: Clean Energy

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In less than 10 years, Uruguay has slashed its carbon footprint without government subsidies or higher consumer costs, according to the country's head of climate change policy, Ramón Mendez. In fact, he says that now that renewables provide 94.5% of the country's electricity, prices are lower than in the past relative to inflation. There are also fewer power cuts because a diverse energy mix means greater resilience to droughts.

In fact, he says that now that renewables provide 94.5% of the country's electricity, prices are lower than in the past relative to inflation. There are also fewer power cuts because a diverse energy mix means greater resilience to droughts.

Almost entirely renewable is less diverse than a more balanced mix of renewable and non-renewable. Or are we supposed to understand diverse as code for renewable, much like with people, where it’s used to mean non-white?

I know this article is a few years old; but, most people overlook the progress made in smaller countries and so I thought I'd share this article anyways. Go Uruguay!



Read the full article here.

The wind in Uruguay has been practically privatized, it has been expropriated in favor of a set of multinational companies, accounting for almost 40 percent of the electricity demand, and almost 90 percent of the resources are under their control.

...the State fostered an investment friendly material and legal environment in the tendering proceedings for wind farms, which entitled companies to tax exemptions for US$3.5 billion, and promoted abusive contracts and business models for the people of Uruguay.

...the State committed itself to buying all energy produced by wind farms for 30 years at a fixed price in dollars: “Nowadays, the State pays US$80 per MW, and in 2016 we had to open the [hydroelectric] dams, because we were forced to buy energy at US$80, when we could have produced it at $6 and $7. This unsustainable and abusive business model, masked behind the green energy discourse, is nothing but the transfer from public to private hands.”

...in Uruguay 25% of users are energy-poor – that is, they have difficulty paying and having access to energy.

...on the one hand, companies pay half of the total price paid by any working-class family. On the other, the study shows that the average working-class family spends 4 to 5 percent of its income on electricity, while the poorest spend 10 percent. This contrasts with the wealthiest residential sector in the country, who spend 2 to 2.5 percent. Moreover, for big consumers, that is, large productive enterprises, energy spending represents around 0.4 percent of the gross production value. In short, a working-class family in Uruguay pays 10 times more for electricity than a businessman.

I'm not against fossil fuels, but if able to go full renewable (hopefully without extorting people of their incomes), then I think it's good.

Personally, what I look forward to the most is fusion power.

Yeah! Let’s find a way to keep increasing our consumption exponentially over time at the clearly unimportant cost of running out of water on our planet in not so many generations!