Oil exploration, renewable resources to help Uruguay reach energy independence.
| Autor | Gaudin, Andres |
Uruguay is working toward a major change in its energy mix by installing wind and solar farms, biomass energy plants, and a regasification plant--actions that will thrust it to the forefront of countries generating and using clean energy (NotiSur, Nov. 20, 2009). The program spearheaded by the progressive Frente Amplio administration aims to make South America's second-smallest country more independent from foreign energy sources by 2016.
In addition, Uruguay has opened up oil exploration for the first time. Based on geological studies that indicate a probability of economically viable oil fields, Brazilian and Venezuelan state oil companies and the French firm Total have already lined up for onshore and offshore exploration.
Experts attending a renewable-energy seminar of the 160-member International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) organized last June in Montevideo buzzed about the "Uruguayan energy revolution."
With the modesty characteristic of Uruguayans, Ramon Mendez Galain, head of the Direccion Nacional de Energfa (DNE), told the German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), "Call it a revolution, or call it what you will, what is certain is that we are on the edge of a profound and radical change that will liberate us from dependence on external sources ... and gain energy sovereignty." He noted there are high costs associated with using oil imports for thermal generation.
The planned developments will also free the country from a divisive and exhausting nuclear energy debate (NotiSur, Dec. 11, 2009).
When the final stage of the plan is complete in 2016, more than half of Uruguay's energy will be from renewable sources, reducing the cost of energy generation by about 30%. More importantly, Mendez Galain pointed out, revamping the energy program will eliminate any possibility that the country could be left without energy, become paralyzed, or be forced to operate above amortizable costs.
By the government's target year of 2016, Uruguay expects to have an energy surplus it could export to either or both of its two large neighbors, Brazil and Argentina. The ambitious energy plan was launched when the country's first progressive administration began in 2005 under President Tabare Vazquez (2005-2010) and continues under Uruguay's second leftist head of state, President Jose Mujica, whose term ends in 2015.
Regasification plant draws protest
Residents of the western section of Montevideo have protested construction of a regasification...
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