What if your country could deliver reliable, affordable energy for everyone — and do it with renewables in just a few years? This is exactly what Uruguay did.

In the fight against climate change, we often hear that a rapid transition to renewable energy is too difficult, too expensive, or too unrealistic. Ramon Mendez proved that these false narratives couldn’t be further from the truth. As Uruguay’s Energy Secretary, the physicist led his country in an astonishing energy revolution that rapidly phased out fossil fuels. In less than a decade, Uruguay flipped the switch and went from being a fossil fuel dependent country to a country run on 98% renewable electricity, generated from a mix of wind, solar, biomass, and hydropower. 

When Mendez took charge of the Energy Ministry in Uruguay in 2008, the country was in an economic and an energy crisis, relying primarily on existing hydropower plants and imported fossil fuels amidst a rapidly growing economy and increasing energy demand. The cost of importing fossil fuels was a burden to the country’s economy and an unsustainable way to meet the country’s energy needs.

“At that time, there wasn’t a single wind or solar farm in the country,” says Mendez. “Renewables were the best option for us, because we didn’t have to import any more fossil fuels. We didn’t have to depend on the crazy fluctuation of energy commodity prices in the international market. We would rely solely on our own resources.”

Despite being told it would be impossible to achieve, Mendez initiated a systemic overhaul rather than incremental change.

“It’s not just about adding renewables. You have to really change the way you plan and operate the system because the business model for fossil fuels, which is what currently exists in all countries, is completely different from that of renewables,” says Mendez. 

The new system that Mendez and his team established ran on complementary sources of renewable energy dispatched together, consisting of 40% wind and 40% hydropower complemented by solar and biomass with zero battery storage.

“In Uruguay, we don’t have a single power battery. We don’t have energy storage. With complementarity of different sources, we managed to make the system work. It’s not a traditional system and it has been functioning well for the past 6 and 7 years,” says Mendez.

As a result of replacing costly fossil fuel imports with renewables, the country’s energy production costs were halved, over 50,000 jobs were created, greenhouse gas emissions were drastically reduced, and the country’s electricity costs are now fixed and stable, no longer at the mercy of fluctuating oil markets. Mendez points out that Uruguayans emit 30 times less greenhouse gases than the world average per inhabitant.

Given today’s high level of climate denialism, Mendez proposes an important narrative shift around renewable energy. While renewables are indeed the best solution for climate change, he suggests that the narrative should instead focus on their socio-economic benefits. After all, renewable energy is now the cheapest source of energy in the world to produce, and the renewable energy sector creates up to three times more jobs than the conventional energy sector, according to the US Department of Energy. 

Uruguay’s achievement isn’t just a win for renewable energy. It’s a masterclass in building political will, trust in renewables, and collective action. Uruguay invested in energy security and long-term prosperity. Its transition serves as a model and a case study for other countries to follow.

***

For more information read the following articles on NPR and the Guardian.