The results speak for themselves. Today, Uruguay produces nearly 99% of its electricity from renewable sources, with only a small fraction—roughly 1%–3%—coming from flexible thermal plants, such as those powered by natural gas. They are used only when hydroelectric power cannot fully cover periods when wind and solar energy are low.
Uruguay's shift to renewables, he argues, demonstrated that clean energy can be cheaper, more stable, and create more jobs than fossil fuels. 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.
Once a net importer of energy, Uruguay now exports its surplus energy to neighbouring Brazil and Argentina. In less than two decades, Uruguay broke free of its dependence on oil imports and carbon emitting power generation, transitioning to renewable energy that is owned by the state but with infrastructure paid for by private investment.
Other concerns focus on cost and scalability. While Uruguay's approach has delivered low prices, some energy analysts worry that replicating the model in countries with higher demand could require costly improvements to transmission infrastructure and significantly more storage.
Uruguay's shift to renewables, he argues, demonstrated that clean energy can be cheaper, more stable, and create more jobs than fossil fuels. 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.
Other concerns focus on cost and scalability. While Uruguay's approach has delivered low prices, some energy analysts worry that replicating the model in countries with higher demand could require costly improvements to transmission infrastructure and significantly more storage.
The results speak for themselves. Today, Uruguay produces nearly 99% of its electricity from renewable sources, with only a small fraction—roughly 1%–3%—coming from flexible thermal plants, such as those powered by natural gas. They are used only when hydroelectric power cannot fully cover periods when wind and solar energy are low.
Uruguay did what most nations still call impossible: it built a power grid that runs almost entirely on renewables—at half the cost of fossil fuels. The physicist who led that transformation says the same playbook could work anywhere—if governments have the courage to change the rules.
The grid-side energy storage studied in this paper refers to the energy storage facilities deployed in the transmission and distribution segments of the power system. The position of grid-side energy storage in the power system is shown in Fig. 1.
Based on the capacity tariff calculation model of the Stackelberg game proposed in this paper, the capacity tariff of grid-side energy storage is 415.58 CNY/kW.
Therefore, it is necessary to use the capacity tariff mechanism to ensure that the basic income of the energy storage power station is conducive to the operation and survival of the development of energy storage in China at this stage. The Chinese government has proposed implementing a capacity tariff for grid-side energy storage.
The planned value of the capacity of the energy storage plant was 427.60 kW h, and the maximum value of the charging and discharging power of the energy storage plant was 85.52 kW. Fig. 6. Output of each unit in the system after the integration of grid-side energy storage. Fig. 7.
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