Wednesday, 26 October 2011

Nearly 600 Energy Storage Projects Announced or Deployed

A new tracker report from Pike Research indicates that nearly 600 energy storage projects have been announced or deployed worldwide, with a surge of new project activity during the past decade.
"Energy storage offers the opportunity to significantly improve the efficiency of the grid at every level," says research analyst Anissa Dehamna.  "The energy storage market is dynamic, but still immature where most technologies are concerned.  The vast majority of active storage projects are utilizing decades-old pumped hydro storage technologies, but the industry has entered a new period of innovation as a number of market players invest considerable resources to prove emerging technologies such as advanced batteries, compressed air energy storage, flywheels, and thermal storage."

Dehamna adds that the wide variety of technologies, applications, and lead times for installations in this sector can make it difficult for many industry participants to analyze the overall market.  Pike Research's tracker aims to identify key market trends on a holistic basis by systematically compiling the available data on all projects around the world including analysis of site, region, size, status, duration, market segment, applications and funding profiles.

Pike Research's "Energy Storage Tracker" provides a comprehensive database of worldwide energy storage projects, including quantitative and qualitative analysis of key trends within the various application and technology segments.  The tracker provides key facts and figures for each project including capacity, location, primary and secondary applications, technologies utilized, and investment cost where available.

Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Energy Storage Industry Grows To Integrate Wind, Solar

By Robert Crowe, Contributor. Reprinted with permission from Renewable Energy World.

Grid-scale energy storage is gaining momentum as batteries, flywheels and compressed air systems begin proving they can regulate frequency and ancillary services with the same efficiency of "spinning reserves" from fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Monday, 24 October 2011

Electric Vehicle Batteries: New Report

Over the past few years, the automotive industry has increased its focus on the electric vehicle (EV) market by successfully introducing several new plug-in hybrid and battery electric vehicles as the process of moving away from petroleum based fuels and toward battery power intensifies. These vehicles will rely almost exclusively on lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries, while hybrid vehicles will slowly switch from nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) technology. While the cost of Li-ion batteries is gradually declining, cost still represents a significant hurdle as it accounts for a large portion of total EV cost.
The government subsidies that gave the initial impetus to the electric vehicle market will continue to drive the market in the near term. However, significant reductions in battery cost are imperative for the industry to grow to the $14.6 billion and 28 million kWh market that Pike Research forecasts by 2017. Nearly half of the demand is likely to come from Asia (led primarily by China) while Europe and the United States are likely to constitute 25% and 21% shares respectively.

There are currently more than half a dozen battery chemistries with unique properties for power, energy density, and life cycle performance that are being commercialized. While there is no chemistry that emerges as the clear winner (owing to the tradeoffs in the various properties), initial indications point to a greater interest in the lithium iron phosphate chemistry in the years to come due to its superior performance characteristics coupled with increased safety.

A new report from Pike Research outlines the critical role that governments around the globe will play in establishing the electric vehicle market, and the challenges that manufacturers face in creating an industry that will be able to stand on its own as government influence diminishes. The study examines the key market drivers for the electrification of vehicles, the status of the R&D in batteries, the impact of declining battery production costs on vehicle sales, and the resale of batteries after their useful life in vehicles.

Wednesday, 12 October 2011

Dale and Virginia Vogel

Paul White presenting the President's Award to Dale and Virginia Vogel on Dale's October 5th birthday.

The Lake Mattoon Illinois (fleet 39) was gathered to celebrate Dale's 85th at a party.

The Vogels' were caught by surprise when Y-Flyer class Secretary/Treasurer Paul White made the presentation on my behalf!


In a very nice letter written by the Vogels they mentioned that Dale's first Y-Flyer was a boat he built in 1963 called "The Orange Slice."




At the 2011 National Championships: (picture from the AYFYRA website)






Receiving a plaque commemorating "The Orange Slice" at the 2011 National Championships: A well deserved award for many years of dedication and their intentions of "remaining active and involved."








Tuesday, 11 October 2011

el Presidente......

October 1st, 2011. My two year term as the President of the American Y-Flyer Yacht Racing Association began.

October 1st was the day that Nile Hatcher released the September/October edition of "The Flyer" which is our digital national newsletter. Nile had previously given notice that the November/December issue will be his last as editor. Anyone can take a look at it here: http://www.yflyer.org/Documents/pdf/flyer/flyerSept11.pdf

Also David Robson, our national web site webmaster, notified me that the e-mail received through the web site would now be forwarded to the new officers. Here's the AYFYRA website: http://www.yflyer.org/

October 2nd was the day I co-signed a letter written by class Secretary/Treasurer Paul White to be sent to North Sails with information about a measuring problem with their 2011 sails that was found at our National Regatta.

October 3rd Lavon Hatcher accepted my invitation to be the editor of the "Flyer" which is our national newsletter. She starts her new job on January 1st.

October 5th was the day that our National Secretary/Treasurer presented the "President's Award" to Dale and Virginia Vogel at Lake Mattoon in Illinois on my behalf.

October 9th and 10th doctor j (my crew since 1975) and I attended the Saratoga Lake Sailing Club's Indian Summer Regatta. My AYFYRA northeast regional Vice President, John Smith, also attended. We all had a fantastic time at this great club.

Also that weekend was the Gilbert Beers Memorial Regatta at Y-Flyer fleet 1 at Lake Allatoona near Atlanta, Georgia. Reports are that the Atlanta Yacht Club put on a great regatta with John Bright (Louisville, KY) and crew Andrea Bright (Auburn) winning.

Today, October 11th, I've been working on my new boat trailer getting it ready for a weekend trip to the Western Carolina Sailing Club at Lake Hartwell for the Hospice Regatta.

And so it begins........
el presidente

Monday, 10 October 2011

Elmer Kenyon Cup Memorial Regatta For Y-Flyers

The Kenyon Cup 2011.

A few inspirational photos of El Fraser and doctor J racing together in Code Blue.

(You can click on any picture for a closer look).

Here is my arch enemy on the water, "The Rickster" chasing Code Blue upwind. It is such a pleasant feeling to have that guy trailing me around a race course:

Rounding the bottom mark of the race course and pulling up my pants while doctor j is working at the console:

Just finishing a downwind jibe with doctor j pulling in the jib. In a moment I expect that I turned up a bit and brought in the main:

Oh...!!! There's The Rickster following behind again!


Another off the wind picture, this time with Jack "Flash" Nash giving Code Blue some trouble but Code Blue's got the inside track:


A Kenyon Cup start as a gust hits the starting line:

Code Blue warming up with an eye on Eric "Four Finger" Nash in Y-2818:
Calm, cool, collected...Code Blue: True athletes playing their game:

Sunday, 9 October 2011

The Indian Summer Regatta at Saratoga Lake, NY

Just got home after spending a fine weekend at the Indian Summer Regatta at Saratoga Lake. Here are some scenes from a very fine club and a very fine lake!

(Remember, click on any picture for a bigger image).

The Saratoga Lake Sailing Club clubhouse.

The mooring field:



A Flying Dutchman: Sneak peak at the inside of a Dutchman:

The Dutchman has controls!!:

A Kestrel:


A Flying Scot looking at the air moving in:

Turns out this is the top finishing Scot team:

A classic boat. The Ensign. Saratoga has a big Ensign fleet.

The Ensign fleet gathered at the end of the weekend to help each other remove their masts for the winter:


A Scot heading out of the harbor:

I haven't seen a laser in this fine condition in a very long time:

Another shot:

And another:

This great race committee did a very fine job!!

From left to right....Laser, Y-Flyer, top Ensign finisher, Ensign, Ensign:

Left to right: Y-Flyer (from Lake Lashaway Sailing Club), Nacra (from the Mayfield Yacht Club):

Top finishing Flying Crow:

Feeling quite at home, this club member was on regatta clean up duty:

The top Thistle team!!!:

The top Flying Dutchman team. You've got to be very athletic to race a Dutchman:

A picture of the clubhouse taken from a dock:

My Y-Flyer crew since 1975, doctor j, relaxing after telling me where to go all weekend:

A fantastic weekend!!!