I’ve written about Uruguay’s energy policy in New Mexico Mercury. I talked about a policy proposed by the current progressive government, agreed to by all the political parties, and implemented by the private sector as well as the State. I explained how the comprehensive plan outlined a series of goals to be met, how by 2015 the small Latin American country would be running on 50% renewable energy sources, and how by 2030 virtually all of Uruguay’s energy needs would be taken care of by sun, wind, water and biomass from agriculture.
It sounded great. But there was little hard data to assure us the plan would work long-term. Now, at last, we have data: data that beginning last month, July 2015, is actually putting money into the pockets of Uruguayan citizens, as well as small and medium sized business.
In “La revolución removable uruguaya: El 84% de la electricidad del país procede to Fuentes alternativas,” (Uruguay’s Renewable Revolution), a detailed article by Magdalena Martínez who is the Montevideo correspondent for El País of Madrid, we find proof of the policy’s efficacy. In fact, the journalist categorizes the success not as merely efficient but spectacular.
Abundant rains this year paved the way for the new reality. Not 50%—as had been predicted for the coming year—but 84% of Uruguay’s electrical power now comes from sun, rain or the burning of agricultural refuse. And green energy already accounts for 40% of the country’s needs, as opposed to the international average, which doesn’t reach 17%.
For the first time, this success has shown up in people’s personal economies. In July 2014 Individuals and families saw a 5.5% decrease in their electric bills, while small and medium sized industries saw a decrease of 6%. Uruguay is a country where energy has traditionally cost a great deal. During recent progressive administrations its price has remained lower than the cost of living—indirectly benefitting the consumer. Now the savings are direct.
The average Uruguayan salary is 41,000 pesos a year, but a family’s electric bill can easily be 5,000 pesos, especially for middle- and higher income families who have heat in their homes. Montevideo is the southernmost capital on the continent. During the more than four months of the year when freezing winds come in from the sea and humidity can reach as high as 98%, southern hemisphere winter nibbles at skin and chills bones. Many of the country’s poor are forced to live without heat. Public buildings are often freezing.
This scenario, however, is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Ramón Méndez, National Director of Energy since 2008, says: “We are talking about a long-term policy here in Uruguay – that’s the main point – because few other countries have one…” Méndez is one of the main architects of the policy, which has produced an energy revolution that is already 25 years old.
“The introduction of renewable sources has increased our energy independence,” Méndez says. “What we have invested has not only permitted us to meet our goals, it has also meant we have been able to export the equivalent of 50% of our consumption to Argentina.
“Since 2008, Uruguay has invested 3% of its annual gross national product (GNP) on radically changing its energy structure. This has put us in an entirely different league from Argentina, Spain, or the European Union. Unlike those countries, we do not subsidize energy production. Our system is based on an association between the public and private sectors. The National Energy Agency holds open auctions and contests, and consistently acquires the best technology for the country’s particular situation.”
What all this means is that within ten years, this small South American country that has such a long history of dependence on foreign oil, will be entirely energy independent. It should even be able to become a major energy exporter. Magdalena Martínez calls this “an ecological revolution as silent as its many windmills.”
All of which begs the question, when will we in the United States begin to move from rhetoric to action in terms of energy policy? When will we have an administration capable of taking the problem of energy seriously, rather than placing Band Aids here and there and patting itself on the back every time it promotes a new but pathetically partial sustainable energy project?
(Flag by Nicolas Raymond, Wind turbines by Jimmy Blakovicius)
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