The Amazing Story of Uruguay: A Successful Transition to Renewable Energy
by John M Repp
Uruguay has a lot of Pampas, the extensive treeless plains, like its neighbors Brazil and Argentina. Thus, agricultural products, especially beef, and some wood products were mainstays of their exports. Now those grassland plains have some new additions: white wind turbines and glistening solar panels.
Uruguay does not have any oil or coal like its big neighboring countries. As Uruguay started to develop, in the age of modern industry, after 1825, they had to buy oil and coal on the open market.
The volatility of the oil price caused problems for them. In an extreme example from recent times, in 2001 they could buy oil for $20 a barrel, but six years later, on July 3, 2008, they had to pay $145 per barrel.
After the end of World War II, Uruguay was able to build hydroelectric dams to help with their energy demands. But some years, lack of rain plagued the country. Black outs in Montevideo were still common not that long ago.
In 2004, they elected their first socialist president Tabare Vazquez from the Frente Amplio (broad front) Party. The leaders of this party talked to leaders of the other main parliamentary parties and came to a cross-party agreement. Dealing with their energy problems was a main concern. They did have a state-owned national utility that helped make the plan national.
Their grid needed to be modernized. The government hired a well-know scientist; an expert in nuclear physics who has made a speech saying it was possible to get off of fossil fuels. He partnered with a few others to design a new grid. They learned that a diversity of power sources would be the most stable arrangement.
The result: in 2019, the country ran on almost 98 percent renewable energy. Hydroelectric accounted for nearly 56 percent, wind 34 percent, bioenergy 6 percent, solar a bit under 3 percent, and fossil fuel just 2 percent.
By way of contrast, in 2023, only 21.4 percent of the US power supply comes from renewables., and tragically, the new Trump Administration is committed to “drill baby drill”.
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The article above was a summary from one in The Nation, April 2025 issue. Intrepid journalist Natasha Hakimi Zapata has traveled around the world, from Costa Rica to New Zealand, and Estonia to Singapore, uncovering how different countries solve the problems that plague the United States.
1) The United Kingdom’s Groundbreaking Universal Health Care System
2) Norway’s life Changing Family-Friendly Policies
3) Singapore’s Affordable Public Housing for All
4) Finland’s Unbeatable Universal Public School System
5) Portugal’s Radical Drug Policy Program
6) Estonia’s “Internet as a Human Right” digital Transformation
7) Uruguay’s Record-Breaking Renewable Energy Transition
8) Costa Rica’s Lifesaving Biodiversity Law
9) Aotearoa New Zealand’s Equitable Universal Pension Program
