[quote=“Okami”]Why no Tidal power?
-Because the ocean is a highly corrosive violent force of nature and laughs at your petty attempts to harvest it’s energy bounty.
Why no Solar Power in Taiwan?
-Typhoons. It takes years for it to pay off then the necessary maintenance isn’t cheap either and one good Typhoon and the whole investment goes down the shitter.
Why no Geo thermal power?
-Caused earthquakes for the Swiss who shut it down in their country. We have actual earthquakes and an unstable geography and you think anyone would build a power plant for geo-thermal in Taiwan. You are a very funny man.[/quote]
Taiwan already have geo-thermal powerplants. The first one was built in 1981. But unlike the Philippines, development stopped. (the Philippines are now 2nd in the world after the US in production of geothermal energy). The technological challenges of using geothermal power in Taiwan are significant, but not impossible to overcome.
Taiwanese PV manufacturers are absolutely f’ing hopeless at marketing their products. I’ve met a few of them at trade shows. Some of their sales reps don’t even know what they’re selling. While the Chinese (and everyone else) have been aggressively chasing customers, the Taiwanese made it as difficult as possible for anyone to buy their products, and don’t seem to have any USP to offer to potential buyers. AFAIK Motech and their ilk barely made a single sale, to anybody, anywhere. How they survived for this long is anybody’s guess.
That (f’ing hopeless marketing) doesn’t surprise in any way. I’m now in the market for a small PV system, but I’d like the flexibility to modularly expand it - if it turns out I need to. Am I going to find a Taiwanese company that I can work with here?
My gut tells me to just get my friend to bring back something, lightweight, portable, from the States this summer. Though I don’t know what that might be. Then I gauge my demand and buy local, once I’m more sure of my requirements.
I can agree with that. I’ve done some freelance stuff at trade shows for Taiwanese companies. After a night of studying the documentation, I already knew twice as much as the local reps, so it was hopeless trying to get more info or having additional questions answered. It’s really sad.
I had a business-card clearout a couple of months ago and cheeked up on some of the PV suppliers. Not a single one was still in existence.
Your gut instinct to get panels from the US or Europe is probably the right one. However I suspect you’ll encounter Customs aggravation “to protect local industry”.
If anyone does find a local company still selling good PV products at competitive prices, I’d be very interested.
I’d be interested too. It smacks of the bike industry all over again - product made locally but unavailable (or are they all mainland manufacturers?). But there are 1 or 2 residential PV installations around Hualien, maybe I’ll go ask who they used.
@finley, do you have any recommendations for solar batteries? Just want something with a low power rating, to drip power over a long period of time.
Indeed. We actually do work with Giant, and they’re easy to deal with, but they’re a bit of an outlier. There are dozens of small companies making components (often very good quality) who just can’t be bothered to market their products. And then they moan that everyone’s going to China. It’s not because China’s cheaper. It’s because they answer their RFQs and (sometimes!) go the extra mile to get you the product you want in a timely fashion.
I use 100Ah NiFe cells. NiFe characteristics are a perfect match for solar, IMO. But I had to go through a world of pain to import those from China (“what are these bags of white powder? Batteries don’t need bags of white powder, do they?”)
ha … not exactly. The electrolyte (NaOH + LiOH) was supplied in dry form, and you have to add distilled water yourself. But as far as Customs officers are concerned, white powder is all just white powder. I imagine they get a little tingle in their nether regions when they see things like that.
Sounds like a very simple battery…Base, Lithium Hydroxide…Just add water ?
.Yes and customs officers love white powder gives them something to get excited about.
Also helps pay my bills
They are very simple. Iron cathode, nickel/nickel oxide anode, alkaline electrolyte. The basic design hasn’t changed much for 100 years, because it works well enough. I’ve seen a few reports of researchers claiming this or that improvement, but (as is usual with battery technology) these always disappear without trace.
Some misunderstanding here, I think. NiFe batteries are shipped just like any other flooded cell (ie., with no electrolyte) for safety reasons. I bought complete cells - cased electrode assemblies, if you prefer - and just had to mix the electrolyte from dry chemicals.
But I have seriously considered how difficult it would be to set up a manufacturing line. I really like NiFe. But there are so few people supplying them because everyone is enamoured with lithium technology. But lithium is a pretty poor choice for solar - short lifetime, complicated charge control requirements, and limited scope for recycling. Also, lithium cells don’t much like being slow-charged, but that’s exactly what you get when they’re attached to a PV installation.
LiOH is hard to get here (although the cells will work without it). Also it has to be high purity stuff - you can’t just throw ordinary industrial NaOH into them, which I think is generally about 10% impurities.
I expected the supplier to make proper customs declarations … silly me. But yeah, it would have been simpler to just source it all here. If I buy more, I’ll do that.
If you want Reagent ACS grade LiOH/NaOH, they can and will get it. They aren’t prohibited or anything (like Sodium Cyanide). Reagent ACS is as pure as you can get. Will it be pricey? Probably, reagent grade chemicals aren’t generally cheap, but they will have it.
They aren’t cheap though… but I guess they aren’t supposed to be.
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DIY battery is something I’d never even considered. What advantages does that have over an off-the-shelf battery (price excepted)?