Clean energy now provides 94.5% of Uruguay's electricity
Ben Welter - Wednesday, December 09, 2015
Uruguay's head of climate change policy says renewables now provide 94.5 percent of his country's electricity.
In less than 10 years, Ramón Méndez says, Uruguay has slashed its carbon footprint, adding wind turbines, biomass and solar without government subsidies. And prices are lower as well.
"There are also fewer power cuts," the Guardian reports, "because a diverse energy mix means greater resilience to droughts." Uruguay's hydroelectric system, which continues to generate much of the country's electricity, is dependent on seasonal rainfall.
But the work is not complete. At the climate conference in Paris, Méndez committed his country to an ambitious pledge: an 88% cut in carbon emissions by 2017 compared with the average for 2009-13.