MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Uruguay's vice-president travels to Brussels to advance Mercosur/EU trade talks
Uruguay's vice-president Raúl Sendic and Foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa will be attending this week's summit of EU and Celac leaders scheduled in Brussels, which will also address in the sidelines, current EU/Mercosur negotiations for a wide ranging trade agreement. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesUruguay at the end will have cold feet like all ways could not confront Argentina , I hope I'm wrong on this one.
Jun 08th, 2015 - 09:35 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ 1
Jun 08th, 2015 - 11:25 am - Link - Report abuse 0But what's the option?
TDC has not paid a dollar for the electricity which 'No Money Pepe' so 'kindly' sent to his brothers and sisters in BsAs; they don't pay the full factura price for anything that they take from us and they shit on us at a moments notice.
Trade has dropped to 60% of what it was and the last time Vasquez was the pres he ignored TMBOA all through his term. You really do have to stand up to bullies, they are the biggest cowards of all.
Nobody will say how many argies are now seeking permanent residency in Uruguay but the figure last year was that 150,000 had come over and they are STILL coming over and seemingly managing to get their money out with them: they are buying houses anyway.
I have greater doubts as to the overall effect for Uruguay of dancing with the devil that is the EU.
Does Uruguay not have Brazil and Paraquay behind them too?
Jun 08th, 2015 - 11:56 am - Link - Report abuse 0@2 Well at least we have a firm hand on the tiller after bumbling Pepe, and he doesnt stand much nonsense from the loony left. After the complete chaos that Mujicas administratration left the country`s finances in, he isnt going to have an easy job to sort things out
Jun 08th, 2015 - 06:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0In spite of what you say UTE seems to have done a good deal on the wind farms, only buying the electricity they produce at a reasonable Price. The investors in the JVs seeem to like it as shares in the Pampa scheme were several times over subscibed. The thermic oil dependent plants have not been fired up as the deficiency in hydraulic has been made up by wind power.
With the new 55Mw(?) interconnection with Brazil we can export any surplus to Brazil and not to to Argentina and more importantly we are not dependent on the whims of Argentina when we have a shortfall and have to import power.
Re Treaty with EU, anything that we can do to reduce tariff barriers is a good idea.
@ 4 redp0ll
Jun 08th, 2015 - 09:35 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I agree totally with your first paragraph and it is great to see how the new government has started to at least tackle head on all the problems left by the dozy prat and his harridan wife.
However:
“In spite of what you say UTE seems to have done a good deal on the wind farms, only buying the electricity they produce at a reasonable Price.”
The 'reasonable price' is yet to be experienced and comes after the windmills start to fail and yes, I know the price is supposed to include all maintenance and Uncle Tom Cobly and all, but other countries have had poor experiences with this type of deal.
Most European countries have come to realise the promises given by many of the suppliers never come to pass and the UK is removing the subsidies that make these monstrosities 'viable'. The contracts for these useless devices (when compared to the cost equivalent alternatives) NEVER guarantee ANY power will be supplied! So what if they lose revenue if the alternative is complete CVT replacement and this WILL be the first major problem, the cost of which installed on site is HUGE.
By then of course the suppliers will have sold off the contracts to commercial entities who know little of the business, just the financial data to the point of sale. I would expect UTE to be offered the ownership at “low cost” once the time expired CVTs arrive (but not yet failed).
What has happened in Eastern Block countries is the things are left standing with locked transmissions until a 'refinance' deal is struck that enables the new owners to at least get their money back and guess who ends up footing the bill: YES, we do.
I wonder why every time I go on my bike down Ruta 12 from the Minas end as I did last Wednesday NONE of the damn things are rotating (
If the three other Mercosur nations reach an agreement with the EU, then any Mercosur product from Uruguay, Brazil, and Paraguay, which was made with parts from Europe that had 0% tariff would be subject to the 33% non-Mercosur tariff.
Jun 08th, 2015 - 10:33 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Argentina needs not EU/UK swill on it's shelves.
Sorry I am not an electrical engineer. What is a CVT?
Jun 08th, 2015 - 10:50 pm - Link - Report abuse 0I really don't think Vice-President Sendic has the business acumen to work out any worthwhile deals with the EU. His performance so far has been dismal - huge losses in the Gov't petroleum monopoly he headed and rather “odd” agreements with Venezuela.
Jun 09th, 2015 - 02:59 am - Link - Report abuse 0@ 7 redp0ll
Jun 09th, 2015 - 11:50 am - Link - Report abuse 0Sorry about that: a CVT is a Continuously Variable Transmission the small versions of which are fitted to cars.
Apart from the main gear ratio adjustment from the slow windmill blade speed to the relatively high generator speed which is an epicyclic gear set the main speed matching is done with a set of metal belts which run between two sets of pulleys. The pulley gap can be widened or narrowed to provide a stepless change in ratios between the two whilst maintaining the correct 'tension' in the segmented metal belt.
The most well known version of a CVT was fitted to the small car manufactured by DAF in Holland. I chose one for my mother-in-law when she started back driving again after a major illness and it worked up to a point. It had two massive vee belts under the floor of the car running between the bevel twin output pulleys at the bellhousing (centrifugal clutch) and one of the pulleys fitted to each of the rear wheels: no differential could be used because if a belt broke there would be no drive at all. This made turning tight circles a very noisy affair with the belts fighting the pulleys.
The CVT's on the windmills have a VERY hard life. Not only do they have to take the torque of the blades (which is immense) they have to carry out relatively small adjustments to keep the generator running within the designed speed range. THEN they have to be able to withstand severe wind gusts without stripping the faces of the belts.
The oil used in these devices has proven to be a real challenge and is considered to be impossible to manufacture hence the challenge by the US Government for a massive monetary prize to anybody who can design and manufacture an oil that will cope with all the variables without setting on fire.
Fires in the machine housing are also caused by overspeeding with torques higher than the capacity of the disc brakes which should manage the main torque peaks and provide a mechanism to lock the blades.
Good eh?
@8 ANCAP. Nobody seems to want to open that can of worms. Ancap which isnt a drilling company invests 600m in the Orinoco field? “Cheap” Venezuelan heavy crude that the La Teja plant cant refine? What was the deal for milk and butter for oil? Perhaps the fact that ROU hasnt made a squeak about Maduros dictatorship is that we owe them?
Jun 09th, 2015 - 08:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Apart from that some murky deals in Argentina and the regassification plant which seems to have come to a grinding halt as one of the Brazilian contractors is involved in the Petrobras scandal
@9 Dont pretend to understand all the technicalities of your explanation. Sounds a bit like the old fluid flywheel transmissions which I recall were installed in Lanchester and Daimler cars.
As you mentioned in previous posts excess electricity cant be stored in the grid so an integrated Wind/hyraulic system is the only way to store it by pumped storage by reversible turbines. We have been into this before I think.
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