He helped Uruguay decarbonize. Can he help other countries do the same? — SkimNews
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- Ramón Méndez Galain was a particle physicist at the Universidad de la República in Montevideo when, in the mid-2000s, he wrote a proposal arguing renewables beat nuclear for Uruguay — prompting President Tabaré Vázquez to offer him the energy-secretary job
- Over his next seven years in government, Uruguay decarbonized its power system to a steady 98–99% clean electricity while retaining public ownership of its utility and grid and letting private capital fund the buildout — an outcome the IMF and World Bank had predicted was impossible
- The grid design uses hydropower as a 'battery' soaking up intermittent wind and solar, with thermal plants kept on standby covering only the final ~2% as insurance
- Galain got every Uruguayan political party to sign the same energy plan, deliberately framing the buildout around energy security and economics rather than climate
- After serving as Uruguay's national director of climate change and Paris Agreement chief negotiator, Galain founded the nonprofit Asociación Ivy, which advises governments across the global south on electricity-system redesign
- In September 2025, Galain won a $4 million Climate Breakthrough award, funding a scale-up aimed at reaching at least 50 countries by 2035 and avoiding roughly two gigatons of emissions
- Uruguayan household bills dropped less than underlying generation costs — a political wrinkle Galain flags as a recurring trap for countries trying to replicate the model
Why it matters: Uruguay's grid hit 98% clean power years ago, yet seven years on no other country has copied the approach — making Galain's $4 million Climate Breakthrough award and his 50-country-by-2035 ambition the first serious test of whether a publicly owned utility financed by private capital can travel beyond Uruguay.
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