Uruguay has reached an important milestone with renewable energy.  The president of the state-run electric company UTE says 98 percent of Uruguay's electricity so far this year has come from sources of renewable energy.

"This year in particular, since it has been a year with a good contribution from the dams, we now have a year-to-date average of around 98 percent of Uruguay's power supply provided by renewables," said Gonzalo Casaravilla, during a meeting of business owners, executives and investors in the energy sector that was held at the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation in Montevideo.

"Though we have also been running plants fired by fossil fuels, they have basically been used to export energy to the region, so we're doing really well this year," Mr. Casaravilla added.

He told participants that Uruguay "has made a very good investment" with the installation of hydroelectric dams that represent 50 percent of the current supply. The country has made major investments of around US$3 billion in wind energy and another US$500 million in solar, which generate 40 percent of teh country's electricity.  An additional 8 percent comes from biomass.