Tuesday 23 April 2013

Uruguayan energy deal with Brazil has real bite

It’s a new South American deal to get your teeth into, Uruguay will import 500MW of electricity from Brazil. Dr Ramon Mendez, Uruguay’s national energy director believes this could rise to 1000MW in the next 10 years.

A 400km connection with Brazil will transfer the 500MW worth of excess power which Brazil doesn’t need. Dr Mendez is reported as saying the interconnection with Brazil will give his country access to energy at a lower cost in winter.

Uruguay butts onto the southern border of Brazil and most of its electricity and heat came from hydropower (5260GWh) as well as oil (2754GWh) in 2009, according to the IEA.

Earlier this year Dr Mendez said the government was working on a radical shift toward renewables and hopes that by 2015, 55% of its electricity should come from hydroelectric plants, 26% from wind farms, 12% from biomass and 7% from natural gas.