Chuck DarwinNov 27
Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible:
it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables
—at half the cost of fossil fuels.
The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere
—if governments have the courage to change the rules.
For Ramon Méndez Galain,
the energy transition isn’t just about climate
—it’s about economics.
Uruguay’s shift to renewables, he argues,
demonstrated that clean energy can be cheaper, more stable, and create more jobs than fossil fuels.
Once the country adjusted the playing field that had long favored oil and gas,
renewables outperformed on every front:
halving costs,
creating 50,000 jobs,
and protecting the economy from price shocks.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2025/10/19/uruguays-renewable-charge-a-small-nation-a-big-lesson-for-the-world/
Uruguay’s Renewable Charge: A Small Nation, A Big Lesson For The World

Uruguay built a power grid that runs 99% on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. Here’s how its bold energy overhaul became a global model.

Forbes
Show threadA Dog With An Opinion
@cdarwin Smaller countries, yes. For larger ones like India - where installed capacities of RE now surpass 50% - it's also about building the transmission lines, upgrading the grid, fixing storage puzzle, discoms etc for which the transition time is huge (also considering the land acquisition, impact on small scale farmers, fishers etc). And without the promised climate finance and tech knowledge transfer trickling in, the hurdles are higher. So there is no one-size-fits-all formula here.
Nov 28 at 2:30amWeb
Show threadKees AntiFA van MalssenNov 28
@ab @cdarwin what makes India different from a set of many smaller entities? It is not as if Uruguay is completely isolated from the countries around it. So also for India (or any other country) doing it for a sizeable area and connecting the dots will do it. Again: it is absolute possible, as soon as there is political will to do so.
Show threadALNov 28
@ab @cdarwin
it sounds like the problem is "big"; big countries have created big corps and high concentration of wealth.
If we had more smaller groups and cooperation instead of winner take all competition we could have a better world.
Show threadTom RitchfordNov 28

@ab @cdarwin Why would it not be easier for bigger countries, because of economies of scale?

> it's also about building the transmission lines, upgrading the grid, fixing storage puzzle, discoms

Why would Uruguay not have these issues?

India has a population density that's 20 times as great as Uruguay!

Show threadA Dog With An OpinionNov 28

@TomSwirly @cdarwin

For ex, India often generates solar and wind power in remote, resource-rich states, but major demand is in distant cities and industries. Transmission lines haven’t expanded fast enough (not easy to acquire land in a federal governance structure) so clean power can’t always be moved to where it’s needed. This leads to bottlenecks, losses, and under-use of renewable capacity. A lot of such factors are at play when a country has to switch to renewables.

Show threadA Dog With An OpinionNov 28
@TomSwirly @cdarwin It's great if Uruguay has shown the way. But in another country where 500 million+ depends on farming and where average landholding is less than 2 hectares, greenfield expansion could be a politically sensitive topic. India is one such. Of course with political will a lot can be done. But when solar farms/windmills end up taking away farms lands, rivers and coastal zones that presents a new set of problems.
Show threadGrassroots JoeNov 28

@ab

Hogwash. Distributed solar + storage can be deployed throughout urban areas + heat pumps to reduce demand.
They can install distributed energy resources and use them to "build" virtual power plants.

Pakistan has deployed huge amounts of small scale solar with minimal government investment:
"Farmers, too, were among the earliest movers in the agricultural sector’s shift away from using diesel generators and/or an unreliable power grid."
https://www.wri.org/insights/pakistan-solar-energy-boom

@TomSwirly @cdarwin

The Perfect Storm Fueling Pakistan’s Solar Boom

Market forces are encouraging a people-led clean energy transformation in Pakistan from fossil fuels to solar power.

World Resources Institute