Mastodawn

Erik Nilsson Dec 9

Ruben Bolling 🪲

I wrote on Boing Boing about the physics professor who became Uruguay's energy secretary, and within five years had the country on 98% renewable energy.

NOT ONLY CAN IT BE DONE, IT WAS AN ECONOMIC BOON THE THE COUNTRY.

https://boingboing.net/2025/12/09/this-physics-professor-transformed-his-country-to-98-renewable-energy-in-five-years.html

This physics professor transformed his country to 98% renewable energy in five years

Ramón Méndez Galain was a Urguayan theoretical physics professor studying the Big Bang when the president of Uruguay shocked him with a phone call in 2008 asking him to be the country's energy secretary.

Boing Boing

John Griffith Dec 9

Maybe having people grounded in physical reality making public policy is better than having so many lawyers in elected and appointed government positions?

@johndgriffith @rubenbolling Making and enforcing the law is the government's business, it makes sense for people who know law to do that. I wouldn't hire an electrician to do my plumbing.

@rubenbolling @jhavok @johndgriffith

This is one of the most ridiculous comments I’ve read in a while…

@DavidM_yeg @rubenbolling @johndgriffith Go ahead, hire an electrician.

Simon Brooke Dec 10

@jhavok @johndgriffith @rubenbolling Making the law, you have to understand the issues you're making law about. Interpreting the law (which is what lawyers do) you don't.

Lawyers are precisely the last people you should trust with making law, because they will only make bad law.

@simon_brooke @johndgriffith @rubenbolling Reflex cynicism is so easy. No doubt Marjory Taylor Greene has written some wonderful law.

Neo Ehproque Dec 10

@jhavok @johndgriffith @rubenbolling no, but maybe you should have someone who's ever seen a pipe involved in plumbing regulations

@ehproque @johndgriffith @rubenbolling You just made the same argument as me.

Token Sane Person Dec 11

@jhavok @johndgriffith @rubenbolling The government also includes the rest of the executive, which does things like keeping the lights on. Government policy is not the business of lawyers.

@tokensane @johndgriffith Obviously the business of FoxNews hosts.

@johndgriffith @rubenbolling It's hard not to feel some empathy with Plato these days.

Peter Keeling Dec 9

Thanks for writing this. I have been dimly aware of the Uruguay case for a while now, and have always been confused as to why it isn't used as an example more often by renewable advocates.

Duncan Bayne Dec 10

@PMKeeling @rubenbolling One reason is because Uruguay is atypical; they have particularly good baseline generation (and in its own way, storage) in plentiful hydro power.

Pointing to Uruguay as a renewables success story immediately raises the objection: what do we in, say, Australia, use as an equivalent?

Peter Keeling Dec 10

@duncan_bayne @rubenbolling

A good point. But I think it's compelling enough to kick a conversation off with. Especially when the public discourse so rarely seems to discuss concrete examples. 'This is how they did it, what can we learn?'

Duncan Bayne Dec 10

@PMKeeling @rubenbolling Or, another angle: look at the graph of Uruguay's $ / kWh for industry. How can we replicate that here?

@rubenbolling ...that's the real "energy independence" you want to achieve

Adrian Cockcroft Dec 9

@rubenbolling Excellent story. Thanks for sharing it!

@rubenbolling that will never work! think of the economy! etc!

Looking for explanations…Dec 10

For years now scientists have been saying that Australia is in a position be a world leader in renewables, but time & time again we’ve failed to rise to the challenge. The costs to our economy, in the past & yet to come, must be enormous.

@rubenbolling
Great story! Thanks so much for sharing. 😁Telling precursor: “One of the most important factors in Galain's success was that his strategy was backed by the entire Uruguayan political system, which meant it would not be disrupted by changing administration. With this buy-in, he was able to modify the country's entire energy system: infrastructure, regulations, and market design.” 🤔

I love it that he now runs a non-profit & hopes to share the success in another 50 countries. 😁

Virginicus Dec 10

@rubenbolling This is great news, but I have to admit the most startling line in it was, “An article by Ken Silverstein in Forbes…” The world has really changed.

@rubenbolling This is why oil shills work so hard to poison the narrative against renewables. They are currently blaming increased energy costs on renewables, instead of on the increased cost of fossil fuels.

The Stage Rabbit (he/him)Dec 10

@rubenbolling Great article from what I could glimpse through the torrent of adverts popping up, around, and in-between the text. I don't remember Boing Boing being this bad for ads.

@rubenbolling
meanwhile the USA elected officials cant felate the oil industry tycoons enough.
pigs

John Crowden Dec 10

@rubenbolling don't show this to anyone in the Alberta government. They'll have a shit.

Laurent Cimon Dec 10

@rubenbolling the technocrats were right

Uruguay's industrial sector is primarily based on agro-industry and natural resource processing, rather than traditional heavy manufacturing, which accounts for a relatively small portion of its GDP.Ok.

Franz Graf Dec 10

@rubenbolling what's really special about the article is that the summary can be "it's cheaper". That's the argument that's totally missing in my country.

@rubenbolling absolutely love it!

Luca Salgarelli Dec 10

@rubenbolling Amazing how having competent people in the right positions can turn anything around. I wish this was circulated to wider audiences.

doragasu Dec 10

@rubenbolling Why solve the energy problem when you can dig your grave deeper betting everything to an ultra wasteful technology that is showing very limited success.

Fazal Majid Dec 10

@rubenbolling the US had an actual Physics Nobel, Steven Chu, as Energy Secretary under Obama 2009-2013, and still did bupkes.

@rubenbolling
It seems like a big deal that Uruguay's poverty rate has dropped from 30% to 8%, thanks to renewable energy. Why is nobody talking about this?!

@rubenbolling Qualcuno può avvisare i politici europei?
Could someone notify European politicians?

@rubenbolling since there seems to be so much interests on the Uruguayan electrical grid, shameless self promotion, @BigBo_Energy posts daily graphs with the sources of energy generation in Uruguay.

decapitae Dec 10

@rubenbolling At least there are some out there, unswayed by fossil fools money and propoganda from the rich. 👍

@rubenbolling Effienct On Resources And Good For The Economy, As Well As Being The Ethical Choice(Safe For The Enviroment). Who Wouldn't Implement This

die uckermärkische graswurzel Dec 11

@rubenbolling How beautifully we sang in 2018 in the Hambach Forest: “Water, wind, and sun! Coal in the trash.” (It rhymes nicely in German) It's great that there are countries that are taking action!