Posted on Oct 7, 2023
How did Uruguay cut carbon emissions? The answer is blowing in the wind : Planet Money
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https://www.npr.org/2023/10/06/ [login to see] /uruguay-green-energy-carbon-emissions-climate-change
Back in 2007, Uruguay had a massive problem with no obvious fix. The economy of this country of 3.5 million people was growing, but there wasn't enough energy to power all that growth. There was energy rationing, and people's power bills kept going up.
"It was difficult for us to cope," Ramón Méndez Galain remembers. "It was difficult to get electricity. For some time, we were beginning to have blackouts."
Méndez Galain had trained as a particle physicist. "When you are trained as a scientist," he says, "you are trained to see an unsolved problem, and [to try] to find an explanation and a solution. So I used, if you wish, my scientific skills I had developed in order to face this difficulty with the same strategy."
Back in 2007, Uruguay had a massive problem with no obvious fix. The economy of this country of 3.5 million people was growing, but there wasn't enough energy to power all that growth. There was energy rationing, and people's power bills kept going up.
"It was difficult for us to cope," Ramón Méndez Galain remembers. "It was difficult to get electricity. For some time, we were beginning to have blackouts."
Méndez Galain had trained as a particle physicist. "When you are trained as a scientist," he says, "you are trained to see an unsolved problem, and [to try] to find an explanation and a solution. So I used, if you wish, my scientific skills I had developed in order to face this difficulty with the same strategy."
How did Uruguay cut carbon emissions? The answer is blowing in the wind : Planet Money
Posted from npr.org
Energy
Climate Change
Physics
Science
Posted 8 mo ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
...""It was difficult for us to cope," Ramón Méndez Galain remembers. "It was difficult to get electricity. For some time, we were beginning to have blackouts."
Méndez Galain had trained as a particle physicist. "When you are trained as a scientist," he says, "you are trained to see an unsolved problem, and [to try] to find an explanation and a solution. So I used, if you wish, my scientific skills I had developed in order to face this difficulty with the same strategy."
He started researching different potential paths for Uruguay's energy future and reaching out to experts he knew around the world. Ultimately, he wrote up an entire plan for how Uruguay could change its energy mix so that it relied almost entirely on renewable energy. There would be less pollution, it would be better for the climate, and, he thought, in the long run, it would be the most economical choice Uruguay could make.
And then one day, Méndez Galain received a phone call in his office."...
...""It was difficult for us to cope," Ramón Méndez Galain remembers. "It was difficult to get electricity. For some time, we were beginning to have blackouts."
Méndez Galain had trained as a particle physicist. "When you are trained as a scientist," he says, "you are trained to see an unsolved problem, and [to try] to find an explanation and a solution. So I used, if you wish, my scientific skills I had developed in order to face this difficulty with the same strategy."
He started researching different potential paths for Uruguay's energy future and reaching out to experts he knew around the world. Ultimately, he wrote up an entire plan for how Uruguay could change its energy mix so that it relied almost entirely on renewable energy. There would be less pollution, it would be better for the climate, and, he thought, in the long run, it would be the most economical choice Uruguay could make.
And then one day, Méndez Galain received a phone call in his office."...
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