The fossil fuel industry likes to make out that it is a pipe dream to think that we can completely replace fossil fuels with alternative sustainable sources. But the example of Uruguay shows that it is not only possible but the transformation can be done in as short a time as five years.
By the early 2010s, Uruguay’s government realized that continuing to rely on imported fossil fuels was economically unsustainable. Méndez Galain, then a particle physicist with no formal experience in the energy sector, proposed a bold plan: to build a system that relied almost entirely on domestic renewable resources—wind, solar, and biomass—and do it in a way that was cheaper than fossil fuels.
The results speak for themselves. Today, Uruguay produces nearly 99% of its electricity from renewable sources, with only a small fraction—roughly 1%–3%—coming from flexible thermal plants, such as those powered by natural gas. They are used only when hydroelectric power cannot fully cover periods when wind and solar energy are low. The energy mix is diverse: while hydropower accounts for 45%, wind can contribute up to 35% of total electricity, and biomass—once considered a waste problem—now makes up 15%. Solar fills the gaps.
The economic impact has been profound. The total cost of electricity production decreased by roughly half compared to fossil-fuel alternatives, and the country attracted $6 billion in renewable energy investments over a five-year period—equivalent to 12% of its GDP. About 50,000 new jobs were created in construction, engineering, and operations, roughly 3% of the labor force. Even more striking, Uruguay is no longer subject to the wild swings of global fossil fuel markets.
This transformation was not just technical; it was also regulatory and structural. Uruguay moved to long-term capacity markets, providing investors and utilities with predictability while removing the bias that favored fossil fuels. The government’s adaptive approach, maintained through five administrations, ensured consistency. Instead of making climate the primary focus, policymakers prioritized cost, reliability, and economic benefits; emissions reductions were a valuable bonus.
…What makes Uruguay’s example compelling to policymakers is not just environmental performance—it is economic rationale. Méndez Galain repeatedly emphasizes that renewables became dominant because they were cheaper and more stable than imported fossil fuels, not because of carbon targets. That economic lens, he argues, is essential if countries want sustained adoption of clean energy.
“Climate policies fail when they are disconnected from economics. The transition works when it saves money and creates jobs,” he says.
…For Méndez Galain, the message is simple: “The question is not whether renewables can work. The question is whether governments have the courage to change the rules. If they do, the rest is straightforward.”
The world overlooks Uruguay’s example at its own risk. In fact, renewables are ready, the playbook is in place, and the advantages are tangible. The only missing ingredient is the political will, which is often clouded by self-interest and money.
I wondered what the country’s leadership was back in 2010 that was so enlightened that it picked out Méndez Galain to design a new plan and, what is even more incredible, seemed to give him all the freedom and support he needed to implement it. I looked it up and was not surprised that the person elected to become president in 2010 was Jose Mujica, a truly remarkable leader who was president until 2015, by which time this ambitious energy plan had became reality.
I wrote about Mujica back in 2013 and, if you read that post, you can see that he was a very humble man who felt that the government should serve the people and its leaders should live like the majority of them. not like kings or a privileged minority. What an extraordinary idea!
Mujica lived and governed as he preached. He died in May of this year at the age of 89, a much beloved leader. You can see from this interview he gave during the last year the humble house that he lived in with his wife even while he was president, because he rejected the presidential mansion with its staff of 42. They had no servants and his security detail consisted of two plainclothes policemen who were parked on a nearby dirt road.
I would add that sodium-ion batteries are coming on line and still improving. They are better in most ways that lithium-ion batteries, using much cheaper and abundant sodium over lithium, and being much less of a fire risk. They are heavier than lithium-ion, but if they are being used to store wind and solar energy that doesn’t matter. So use lithium-ion for EVs and sodium-ion for when the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine. (Take that, Trump!) They appear to be the way to go. We can convert if we can just get the fossil fuel goblins out of the way.
acuha, ITA. Battery technology is really snowballing towards exceptionally useful. I am, in fact, looking to buy a battery right now as a backup generator for my house. But, since your post, I will perhaps wait till sodium ones are ready, as lithium fires are not to be taken lightly.
There’s a fascinating article, https://ourworldindata.org/cheap-renewables-growth, “Why Did Renewables Become So Cheap So Fast?”, and it’s *really* encouraging. Renewables are following Wright’s Law (analogous to Moore’s law), which is that, with every doubling of installed capacity, the price of the installation+maintenance+operation drops 20%. Fossil fuels are not.
Says that, between 2009 and 2019, price of solar-generated electricity dropped an astonishing 89%, from $359/kWh to $40/kWh. In just ten years. (One of the big advantages of renewables over fossil fuels is that *the fuel is free*.)
Meanwhile, the price of electricity from natural-gas generators, during the same ten years, only dropped from $83/kWh to $56/kWh, but that’s only during normal power demand. At times of “peak usage” (aka, every night) the price of electricity from a natural-gas power plant is…..drumroll, *$175/kWh*. Every night!
Renewables would have taken over the power market whether there was a climate crisis or not. Can’t argue with cheaper+better.
I read another interesting article (sorry, I can’t find it), but, Swissair is building passenger jets that fly half on jet fuel, half on hydrogen gas (emits only water on burning.) The planes are supposed to be in use in 2028, and you better believe that the other airlines are watching closely.
Someone came up with a way to efficiently transfer the energy of burning hydrogen to the point where it can actually run a jet engine.
For one thing, hydrogen is not subject to the wild price swings of the fossil fuel market. For another, it is very, very lightweight. A plane with half jet fuel, half hydrogen, can fly many more miles than one with all jet fuel, aka, more distance for less money. (The article said “And perhaps this cost-saving will be passed on to the passengers!” Yeah, and perhaps the moon will fall out of the sky.)
Also, airlines are apparently losing a lot of money when passengers get into fist fights or the Boeing plane falls apart in the air (both are getting more common), and the airplane has to land somewhere or circle back and land. A fully-fueled, even somewhat fully-fueled, jet is too heavy to land, so it dump hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of fuel to get light enough. (Love that for the environment! But, airlines just are moaning about the money it costs.)
So, if a lot of your fuel is hydrogen, the plane will be much lighter and could land and save the airlines a lot of money.
I really think that this is going somewhere! Cuz, as with renewables, money talks.
garnetstar @#3,
I looked into thee Swissair story but that seems to not be the case. That did not surprise me since it is unlikely that an airline would venture into the plane building business. But Airbus is developing a fully electric hydrogen powered plane but it is not expected to be in production until the late 2023s.
@3 garnetstar
Most hydrogen fuel on Earth comes from hydrocarbons, however. It’s a faux-renewable — a processed form of natural gas.
Some large caveats apply: hydro power is heavily restricted by rainfall averages and the topographic relief of a nation, solar power is heavily restricted by average insolation, and geothermal power is heavily restricted by the land’s volcanism; all power transmission efficiency is limited by the population density. The ambitions of a nation are shaped by its terrain.
This is certainly interesting and beneficial for Uruguay.
Well, er… it is.
Everything talked about in this description of what Uruguay has achieved is about the generation of electricity. Granted, replacing the use of fossil fuels for that is a great step forward, but if you think that’s all fossil fuels are used for, you’re not thinking very clearly. About 58% of global fossil fuel use is for things other than electricity generation.
Some of those things may, eventually, be able to be replaced with electrical energy (example: heating chemical manufacturing processes, nowadays most often heated using steam raised in gas-fired boilers which could be replaced by raising steam electrically (you will NOT get away from using steam to heat chemical manufacturing processes). You’ll only be able to do that when electricity is MUCH cheaper than the fossil fuel equivalent AND the equipment to use it pays for itself in three years. Process industries are already closing down round much of the civilised world because of high energy costs, which are tied to the cost of gas.
Other uses for fossil fuels will NEVER be replaced, or at least not this century -- solar panels and windmills aren’t a suitable feedstock for a plastics factory. But most people in the civilised world and the USA needn’t worry about that -- we’re rapidly outsourcing all our chemical manufacturing capacity to countries like China and India, because they want the long-term technical employment opportunities they offer. We’re getting busy turning ourselves into service economies, buying and selling things made elsewhere, rather than actually producing things of value. This process has been ongoing since Thatcher and Reagan got it started, and it doesn’t look like stopping any time soon. The programme to turn us all into landless serfs is advancing nicely, and this might make the air in which the serfs live cleaner, but it won’t change anything about how their societies are arranged.
Oh, sorry Mano @4 et al, I also see by searching that a lot of people are working on the hydrogen-powered planes, but as you say, not ready for passenger jets yet.
I should have remembered that, since the article I read about it was a popular journalistic report, it was probably untrue in every detail.
beholder @5: Let them split water! 🙂 With cheap renewable electricity, of course.
Celluloses can be used to make certain plastics. Oil need not be the only hydrocarbon used.
Uruguay is currently exploring the oil resources in their territorial waters. It’s really starting to look like there’s a really nice supply of it.