Source – usuncut.com

– “The country is defining global trends in renewable energy investment”:

As world leaders gather in Paris to discuss how to curb global climate change, the people of Uruguay are enjoying affordable clean energy with very little pollution.

Over the last decade, Uruguay has transitioned over from total reliance on dirty fossil fuels and is now getting more than 94 percent of their electricity from renewable energy sources. What’s more amazing is that Uruguay made the switch without any government subsidies and is now providing citizens with lower monthly energy bills than before.

“What we’ve learned is that renewables is just a financial business,” says Ramón Méndez, National Director of Energy. “The construction and maintenance costs are low, so as long as you give investors a secure environment, it is a very attractive [business].”

He is also quick to point out that while the plan they have followed is simple, it didn’t happen overnight.

“We had to go through a crisis to reach this point. We spent 15 years in a bad place,” Méndez told The Guardian. “But in 2008, we launched a long-term energy policy that covered everything … Finally we had clarity.”

Méndez attributed Uruguay’s success to providing an environment that encourages both foreign investment and partnerships with publicly-owned companies. Due to their ownership by the government of Uruguay, these public companies offer low risk and reliability for private firms, which have created an operating environment that continues to pay dividends for everyone involved in the process. By offering foreign investors fixed energy pricing at 20-year contract lengths guaranteed by their publicly-owned state utility, Uruguay has removed the need to pad deals with subsidies and tax breaks, choosing instead to offer consistency and reliability in what has become a volatile industry due to a cycle of never-ending political uncertainty in the Middle East and Asia.

Because of this, there is a long line of foreign firms wanting to secure contacts for energy from the wind farms and hydroelectric power plants which continue to be built with the profits from current contracts. This competition to purchase Uruguay’s clean energy is keeping foreign demand high while providing residents with clean, cheap energy.

This constant cycle of investment and expansion of clean energy allows Uruguay to meet more than 90 percent of the national demand for electricity without operating coal or nuclear power plants. They have even worked with large agricultural processing plants to convert to biomass cogeneration plants, which essentially allow them to power themselves without the need for fossil fuels.

In addition, Uruguay has also diversified their renewable energy sources by adding both biomass and solar power plants. This diverse mix of energy resources, combined with their long-term strategy that is paying large dividends, has made them a model for countries looking to divest from fossil fuels.

Their plan has earned the notice and praise of the World Bank and the Economic commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the WWF last year named Uruguay among its “Green Energy Leaders”, proclaiming: “The country is defining global trends in renewable energy investment.”

James Woods ( AKA – JamesFromTheInternet) is an independent journalist based in New York City who can be reached on twitter @JamesFTInternet or via email: jamesftinternet@gmail.com

http://usuncut.com/climate/uruguay/