Did you know it's possible to transform a country to 98% renewable energy in 5 years?

[goaded]

https://boingboing.net/2025/12/09/this-physics-professor-transformed-his-country-to-98-renewable-energy-in-five-years.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2025/10/19/uruguays-renewable-charge-a-small-nation-a-big-lesson-for-the-world/

"Once the country adjusted the playing field that had long favored oil and gas, renewables outperformed on every front: halving costs, creating 50,000 jobs, and protecting the economy from price shocks."

[lightbulb27]

no... we have a hard time powering what we have in my state. I have to read that article. But thats comparing a tiny fish to a whale...

I think we are going the wrong way... we should produce the panels in the USA or by good contracts, drive the prices down and deploy in all the areas it is feasible. Then augment with the other technologies.

Big turbine fans that kill birds possibly cause problems with migratory sea life, not so sure. Maybe... why not a windmill on every roof?

oil and gas is good and "cheap" for now, but not forever and puts us at risk to global issues. Nuclear... um sounds great, til one blows or get into a war and one is blow up, or some yahoo terrorizes one.

PS we really don't need all this AI crap that is going to suck up the power. Turn it off!

But they don't ask me... I think we should live like my grandma, but business don't like that... no profits to pay the debts.

I could be wrong, got to produce a lot of junk to make that power... disposable panels, dig up the planet to make batteries... all crap that is going to fail.

[OddBeMe]

Impossible with billion dollar oil companies with unlimited power to bribery

[goaded]

Exactly. It's the corruption.

Did you know it's possible for states to undo the harm from Citizens United?

"Here’s the thing: Individual states — either through their legislators or their citizens wielding ballot initiatives — have the authority to limit corporate political activity and dark money spending, because they determine what powers corporations have...

States don’t have to grant corporations the power to spend in politics. In fact, they could decide not to give corporations that power.

This isn’t about corporate rights, as the Supreme Court determined in Citizens United. It’s about corporate powers.

When a state exercises its authority to define corporations as entities without the power to spend in politics, it will no longer be relevant whether corporations have a right to spend in politics — because without the power to do so, the right to do so has no meaning.

Delaware’s corporation code already declines to grant private foundations the power to spend in elections.

All a state would need to do is enact a law with a provision something like this:

“Every corporation operating under the laws of this state has all the corporate powers it held previously, except that nothing in this statute grants or recognizes any power to engage in election activity or ballot-issue activity.”"
robertreich.substack.com/.../how-to-get-rid-of-citizens-united

[OddBeMe]

Political parties are too much in control. And people are falling into line. More on the right. Way more.

The left doesn't unite like the right wing.

[douride2]

The liberals up north have been trying for 10 years now. Hasn't happened yet. Not even close. Here in Ontario we pay some of highest rate for electricity in N. America.

[BadApple69]

My first thoughts….. how many server farms/ AI super computing centers in Uruguay? Electric cars have really taken off in Uruguay they have approx 10,000 of them. The U. S. ? 4 million. Let’s say 8kw to charge one car so Uruguay requires 80,000KW to charge the electric cars…. The U. S. 32million KW. That’s a very different number.
Plus wind isn’t dependable and neither is solar. Here in the U. S. places that have large wind power have to keep gas/coal power plants running incase the wind stops generating enough power. Wind you can stop and start quickly but gas and coal you can’t so they have to keep them on. No matter what you read in these BS publications “renewables” just aren’t there yet.

[loveslongnails]

The US doesn't have the infrastructure to support a switch to electric vehicles yet. With all the corporate and oil interests at play, that's a long ways off. As to wind and solar, it's damn reliable depending on where you put it. Forget the USA for a minute because, well, it's not the center of the universe. There are wind farms in Ireland where it practically never stops being windy, but that isn't even necessary to be a productive wind farm when storage is down properly. Ireland now gets 35% of its total electricity production from wind, and that's growing.

Obviously, green energy isn't ready to take over the world, but there's no reason to shun it either.

[goaded]

How many server farms/ AI super computing centers do people really need? Never mind.

Do you think electric cars spend all their time being charged? Most are charged for a few hours then driven for a few days on that charge (average commute time is about 30 minutes). You can also generate clean electricity locally; a couple of solar panels where you park your car during the day can mean you never have to pay for fuel.

Uruguay has about the same population as Connecticut, Utah, Nevada, Iowa or Puerto Rico. Or the total population of North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.

Montevideo has roughly the same population as Dallas.

What happened to the American can-do attitude that was so annoying? Does it only come out when it involves burning stuff? C:

Germany's wind power capacity was 72.7 GW a couple of years ago. 100 GW from solar. (A gigawatt is typical annually averaged power consumption for a city of 1.8 million habitants, and is the output of a large power station.)

I bet Germany has a hell of a lot more cloudy days than a lot of places in the US. Anywhere with mountains can store excess electricity by pumping water and releasing the energy again is very quick.

[Twodogs0525]

Is that what they're running on in Germany? In the US, midterm elections are coming up and I don't think there's one candidate doing the "The world is ending in 3, 5, 20 years tour." I actually think the 97% is, well, not impressed with their predictions.

[goaded]

It's what we're working on. There's no reasonable argument against it.

"In July 2019, figures published by the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE) report that renewable energy is for the first time providing more electricity than coal and nuclear power combined in Germany. Solar, wind, biomass and hydroelectric power generates nearly half of the country's output."

[abc3643]

I don't know about that. Uruguay is a small country of under 6 million people. Uruguay has a progressive society though; if you had to move to South America, Uruguay is definitely a good place to move to.

[jahaims]

The manufacturing process, transport, mining the resources, maintenance, installation of green energy such as wind and solar cause more harm than good. It isn't a green energy when the whole process leaves a giant carbon footprint.

[goaded]

Feel free to link to something that proves it's worse than the alternatives.

Maintenance and installation of green energy such as wind and solar has another name: Jobs. That's a positive, not a negative.

[exitseven]

yes if you bankrupt the county and if you believe in fairy tales.

[goaded]

Do you know how much the US government puts out in subsidies for fossil fuels?

"the $649 billion the US spent on these subsidies in 2015 is more than the country’s defense budget and 10 times the federal spending for education." while "up to 80% of the United States could in principle be powered by renewables".

www.forbes.com/.../united-states-spend-ten-times-more-on-fossil-fuel-subsidies-than-education

It's not just cleaner, it's cheaper (and creates jobs).

[exitseven]

I live in a state with the highest electric rates in the country. This is because out moonbat governor is changing to windmills and solar panels.

[goaded]

Aloha! Do you ever check anything you're told? You should, especially if it is something political that makes you angry.

www.chooseenergy.com/electricity-rates-by-state/

[exitseven]

okay- California and Rhode Island has us beat. I never count Hawaii becuse they are expensive for everything.

[goaded]

Install domestic solar panels, then. The more expensive the electricity, the quicker they pay for themselves.

[exitseven]

By the time the solar panels become profitsble hopefully we will have Republican leadership and this nonsense will be discontinued.

[msc545]

The profit-takers and the rent-takers will not let you do this because they won't make enough money from it, and it won't keep you poor enough. And that's really their goal.

[NathanDavis]

for certain, specific... very small countries, a lot of things are quite plausible, yeah...

[goaded]

Uruguay has about the same population as Connecticut, Utah, Nevada, Iowa or Puerto Rico. Or the total population of North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.

[NathanDavis]

the human population size is not the only one factor to consider... for example, only about 20% of the total energy consumed in the USA, goes to " residential use"

80% goes to industrial and commercial use which is obviously not in pair with the population, not in a sustainable way, not even close

that's why you can't really compare these to those... lol

[goaded]

Do you know how much the US government puts out in subsidies for fossil fuels?

"the $649 billion the US spent on these subsidies in 2015 is more than the country’s defense budget and 10 times the federal spending for education." while "up to 80% of the United States could in principle be powered by renewables".

www.forbes.com/.../united-states-spend-ten-times-more-on-fossil-fuel-subsidies-than-education

It's not just cleaner, it's cheaper (and creates jobs).

[NathanDavis]

in principle... and in practice are not the same thing at all, lmao

[goaded]

No, in practice the oil companies bribe politicians to keep their products competitive. Vote out those politicians.

[Shiprex]

If the conditions are right absolutely. Even shorter time if motivation from leaders and population is present.

[beefcakebradybatson]

If said country has the political will.