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
@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.
@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.