Once trapped by outages and oil shocks, Uruguay now gets up to 98% of its power from renewables

Uruguay's electricity system used to be vulnerable on several fronts. There were blackouts, drought-hit hydropower, and volatile imported oil costs. 

Fast forward less than 20 years, and the country is frequently held up as a case of renewables improving grid reliability and reducing dependence on fossil-fuel turmoil, as The Christian Science Monitor reports.

What happened?

By the late 2000s, several pressures were converging, as the publication recounted. It all created a situation former energy secretary Ramón Méndez Galain called "a nightmare" to The Monitor.

Since then, the turnaround has been dramatic. According to The Monitor, Uruguay now gets up to 98% of its electricity from renewable sources, including wind, solar, hydropower, and biomass. Even with a population of about 3.4 million, the country also sells surplus electricity to Argentina and Brazil, the outlet notes.

José Cataldo, a professor at the University of the Republic in Montevideo who led Uruguay's pilot wind project in the early 2000s, described the pace of the transformation to The Monitor in simple terms. 

"It was a tsunami," he told the paper.

Wind expansion was a major part of the shift, Cataldo added. Uruguay installed 1,500 megawatts of capacity, roughly enough to serve almost all households in the country, as The Monitor reported. Political support also proved crucial. In 2010, the country's four main parties agreed on a shared energy plan, helping keep it in place beyond a single election cycle.

Why does it matter?

Uruguay's energy transition was not presented solely as a climate initiative. It was also framed as a way to strengthen energy security, prevent outages, and reduce the country's exposure to global oil and gas disruptions that can quickly drive up costs for households and businesses.

The payoff extended far beyond the utility sector. The Monitor reported that the buildout lowered electricity generation costs, created 50,000 jobs, and attracted companies such as Google looking for lower-pollution operations. 

"The transition [had] a tremendously positive impact on the whole economy, not just the power sector," Méndez Galain told the outlet.

Cleaner electricity can also improve daily life in more immediate ways. A more reliable grid can mean fewer blackouts, steadier charging for electric vehicles, and less pollution tied to fossil-fuel generation.

Adriana Inthamoussu, a Uruguayan resident who remembers the country's earlier power outages, summed up the difference to The Monitor by saying in the old days "we had to go to bed early."

"That doesn't happen anymore," she said.

The system is not flawless. Some consumers still pay high utility bills because the government has chosen not to pass along all the reductions in production costs, The Monitor noted. Even so, Uruguay shows that renewable energy can strengthen an electricity grid rather than weaken it.

What's being done?

Uruguay built its system around a mix of resources rather than a single source of power. 

Marcelo Mula, vice president of the Uruguayan Association for Renewable Energy, explained to The Monitor that hydropower serves as a "big battery," balancing wind, solar, biomass, and dams, with gas plants available as backup.

Other countries may choose to use batteries to harness clean energy.

In Uruguay, much of the momentum also came from private financing. The Monitor reported that renewable projects were developed by private companies with fixed contracts, which can help speed up deployment.

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