Ruben Bolling 🪲Dec 9

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
Show threadPeter KeelingDec 9

@rubenbolling

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.

Show threadDuncan BayneDec 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?

Show threadPeter Keeling

@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?'

Dec 10 at 10:50amWeb
Show threadDuncan BayneDec 10
@PMKeeling @rubenbolling Or, another angle: look at the graph of Uruguay's $ / kWh for industry. How can we replicate that here?